Game 85: Tigers look to extend winning streak against Indians

After 5 straight wins against the Indians, the Tigers will look to continue the streak tonight with Edwin Jackson heading to the mound. In his previous start against Cleveland, he went 7 strong innings with 0 ER, 7 K's and only six base-runners all game. His 1.07 WHIP is the best in the AL and his 2.59 ERA is good for the 3rd in the AL. His peripheral numbers would suggest a slight increase in ERA as the year progresses, but nothing would suggest a monumental fall. His 3.37 FIP is good and his 2.82 K/BB rate is well above average. The only real concerning thing is a real low BABIP of .260 and a LOB % of 76.5. Still, an ERA between the 3 to 3.5 range is very realistic and who would not have taken that to start the year?

He is still basically a two pitch pitcher with a great fastball and slider that are both plus pitches. Shin Soo-Choo is their best combined fastball-slider hitter so he will be one that Jackson will have to be careful with tonight. And, as usual, Victor Martinez must also be watched carefully. He is a great, great fastball hitter.

Opposing us tonight will be Cliff Lee, the Cy Young Winner last year for the AL. In his last start against us, he engaged in that epic duel with Justin Verlander which saw Verlander throw a complete game shutout and Lee toss 8 innings and only allowing 1 ER. Lee is that kind of pitcher and certainly capable of another performance like that. He has a 3.45 ERA this year with a 1.41 WHIP and a 3.33 FIP. Like usual, he does not strike out a lot of batters (he has a 6.38 K/9 rate) but he does not walk many, either. His BB/9 rate of 2.33 is very good. He has a GB/FB ratio of 1.30 and only has a HR/9 rate of 0.60. So, we should expect quite a few groundballs off the bats tonight.

Lee's two most frequent pitches are his fastball and changeup. According to Fan Graphs, he had a fastball that was 34.2 runs above average last year. That is simply sick. This year he has come back down to Earth a little bit, but it is still at 6.5 runs above average. His fastball comes in an 91-92 MPH on average.

His splits clearly suggest that right handed batters stand a better chance against him than lefties do. RH batters have an .800 OPS against him and lefties only have a .542 OPS.

Lee is coming off a decent start against the A's allowing 3 ER in 6 innings of work. But, it took 112 pitches to just get through that inning and we all know how bad the A's offense is. In addition to that, just a start before that Lee allowed 7 ER in 3 IP against the White Sox. So, maybe the Tigers are catching the ace at a good time?

Ordonez and Inge both have an OPS above .900 against him so they will be two players to especially keep an eye on tonight against Lee. Perhaps the platoon will help take some pressure off Ordonez and hide his deficiencies a little bit by only letting him face lefties? Tonight may be a good night to find out especially with a great pitcher facing off against him.