Riley Greene, Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres will start in the All-Star Game this month, representing the Detroit Tigers.
Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians also was voted in as a starter for the American League.
All four are expected to be in action Saturday night when Tigers right-hander Casey Mize (8-2, 2.86 ERA) opposes Guardians left-hander Logan Allen (5-6, 4.27) in the middle contest of the three-game series in Cleveland.
Also expected to be in the lineup is Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan, who was a finalist in fan voting but fell short of being chosen. The three-time Gold Glove Award winner is seeking his second straight All-Star selection as a reserve.
“Steven Kwan, 100 percent should be an All-Star — and I think he will be,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I don’t think you can quantify what he means to us.”
Were the rosters picked two weeks ago, Kwan would be sitting pretty, but his 7-for-37 (.189) performance over the past nine games has dropped his season average to .296 with six homers, 26 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.
Adding to Kwan’s shaky candidacy is the Guardians’ collapse, which reached eight straight losses when Wenceel Perez and Zach McKinstry homered and Reese Olson pitched well in his return from the injured list as the Tigers won the opener 2-1 on Friday.
Vogt said he believes off-the-field factors should help propel Kwan onto the AL roster when it is announced Sunday.
“Just the consistent defense, consistent at-bats, who he is in the clubhouse,” Vogt said. “The consistency at which he works and takes the field every day, and the spark that he gives our lineup and our team, every time he comes to the plate.”
Cleveland could use more sparks, having been blanked four times and held to three or fewer runs two other times in the eight-game skid.
Detroit owns the best record in the American League and is pulling away from the rest of the Central Division but is 2-3 against Cleveland this season.
“Every time, they have a pretty good matchup with us because we play pretty well against each other,” Perez said. “It’s baseball.”
Allen is 0-2 with a 9.75 ERA in three career starts against Detroit, while Mize is 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA in two starts against Cleveland.
The Tigers have fallen back to earth a bit over their past 20 games, going 11-9, but their pitching has been lights out. Reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and Mize are as good a 1-2 punch as there is in the AL, and Will Vest and Tommy Kahnle have combined for 22 saves.
Olson, Tyler Holton, Kahnle and Vest combined to scatter nine hits on Friday. Vest earned a four-out save as Detroit improved to 25-20 on the road.
“All night, we were just trying to hand the ball to the next guy, regardless of who finished it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It could have been Kahnle or Vest.
“All of our guys train for four-out saves because you can’t ambush them by asking them to do it against a division opponent, in front of a packed house on July 4th like tonight, if they’re not prepared.”
–Field Level Media
