A broken ankle sends Magglio Ordonez to the DL for at least six weeks.
The Tampa Bay Rays finally play their first home game of the second half when they take on the Detroit Tigers on ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball. This is the start of a four-game series.
The Rays (58-38) have played at the Yankees, Baltimore and Cleveland since the All-Star break, going 4-4. The Sunday game at Cleveland has not concluded. Tampa Bay is 32-18 away and has the AL’s best road money-line mark (plus 10.1 units).
Home has been a different story. The Rays’ 26-20 record translates into minus 10.2 units, third worst in the AL. However, they went 6-1 at home before the break, including a three-game sweep over Boston. Tampa leads Boston by four games in the wild-card race.
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The Tigers (50-45) have been great at home (34-16) and awful away (16-29). They have the AL’s best money-line home mark (plus 15.8 units) and the worst away (minus 14.7 units). Their poor road play continued to start the second half with a four-game sweep at lowly Cleveland.
Detroit is 2-3 at home since the break. It has a day-night Sunday doubleheader against Toronto, which makes the turnaround difficult for Monday night. The Tigers are in third place in the AL Central, 2.5 games behind the White Sox.
Max Scherzer (7-7, 4.43 ERA) has been symbolic of Detroit’s problems. He’s 6-2 (3.31 ERA) at home and 1-5 (5.61 ERA) away. Detroit is just 1-8 in his road starts, scoring a paltry 2.9 runs per game.
The 25-year-old righty has pitched much better (6-3, 2.54 ERA) since a brief May sabbatical in Triple-A. Even his four road starts have been improved (4.69 ERA), although Detroit still lost all four. The ‘under’ is 6-2 in his last eight starts (2-1 away).
Scherzer has never faced Tampa Bay before. This is his first year in the AL after spending two seasons with Arizona. The fireballer has a career strikeout rate of 9.22, and just needs to keep improving his secondary pitches.
The struggling Matt Garza (10-5, 4.36 ERA) gets the start for Tampa Bay. He has a 6.70 ERA in eight starts since June 1 and got bombed for seven earned runs over 6 1/3 innings at Baltimore in his only second half start.
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Tampa Bay lost that Baltimore game 11-10, but is 6-2 in Garza’s last eight starts even with his lofty ERA. The Rays have provided great run support (6.6 runs per game), with the ‘over’ going 6-1-1.
The 26-year-old righty is trying to build off his last home start, a one-hit shutout over six innings versus Cleveland. He’s 0-4 with a 5.85 ERA lifetime against Detroit. Garza hasn’t faced the Tigers this year and last saw them at home in 2007.
This is the first meeting between Detroit and Tampa Bay this year. Detroit swept a three-game series at Tampa last September.
Detroit outfielder Magglio Ordñnez just fractured his ankle and is out until at least mid-September. That’s a big blow to the offense with third baseman Brandon Inge also out (broken hand). DH Carlos Guillen (calf) is day-to-day.
Tampa Bay doesn’t have any significant injuries.
First pitch on Monday is 4:10 p.m. (PT). The hot Florida weather isn’t a factor at indoor Tropicana Field.
There’s another good pitching matchup on Tuesday with Justin Verlander battling James Shields.