The boys look to take a series and get to .500 today.

Chris Tillman was pretty darn good in his first outing, throwing 6 innings of no-hit ball against the Rays, but was pulled after 101 pitches.  Tillman is young and promising, but his first two years in the bigs have been disappointing, at best.  In 124 2/3 IPs, all as a starter. Tillman has a career 5.34 ERA and 1.49 WHIP.  In three career starts against the Tigers, Tillman is 1-0 with a 3.20 ERA, averaging just over 6 innings per start.  This includes a 7 inning, 3 hit, 1 ER, 7 K performance in game 160 last year.

Brad Penny, well, he really can’t do any worse.  On the field, that is.  He seems to be doing okay off the field.  Though it would have been nice for that article to come out after his start.  The best part about the article is his wife is planning on having their wedding in “October or November.” Penny sure did his part last week to keep that timeline in play.

Ryan Perry went on the DL today, it’s retroactive to April 5th.  He has an “infected eye.”  Can you really get pink eye from a pillow as discussed in Knocked Up?  Robbie Weinhardt gets the call.

Tonight’s Lineup includes Don Kelly, Ramon Santiago and both Raburn and Boesch.

1. AJax – CF
2. Rhymes – 2B
3. Boesch – LF
4. Cabrera – 1B
5. Martinez – C
6. Kelly – 3B
7. Raburn – LF
8. Avila – C
9. Santiago – SS

JV looks to get to 1-0 on the season and continue his domination over the Orioles.  Over the last five years and covering 8 starts, Verlander is 5-0 with a 2.52 ERA and 1.10 WHIP against the birds.  JV had a ND in the opener against the Yankees.  Other than his 4 walks and 1 bad pitch to Teixeira, JV pitched pretty well.  Let’s hope he can keep his pitch count down and get into the 7th today.

Brad Bergesen starts for the O’s after their ace Jeremy Guthrie was hospitalized on Monday with pneumonia.  Bergesen’s stats look pretty average over his career –  4.33 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, but his FIP (4.70) and K/9 (4.48), suggest that he’s not all that great.  But I also thought the same about Jake Arrieta.  In his career, Bergesen has decent numbers against the Tigers – 1-2, 3.86 ERA, and a 1.19 WHIP.

Fun fact of the day – AJax led the majors in Ks entering Tuesday (8), but he also leads the majors in pitchers per at bat.

Tonight’s Lineup:

1. AJax – CF
2. Rhymes – 2B
3. Maggs – RF
4. Cabrera – 1B
5. Martinez – DH
6. Boesch – LF
7. Peralta – SS
8. Avila – C
9. Inge – 3B

Your Tigers look to get to .500 today, else it’s 1-3 with a dreaded off day tomorrow.

Porcello toes the slab for the Tigers.  Porcello was roughed up a little in spring training, allowing 29 hits and walking 11 in 27.2 innings for a 1.45 WHIP.  He struck out 17 during that time.

Jake Arrieta goes for the O’s today, after making the opening day roster for the first time.  Arrieta has four real pitches, throwing his curve, slider or change roughly 40% of the time, distributed almost equally.  Arrieta started 18 games for the O’s last year, posting a 6-6 record with a 4.66 ERA in 100.1 IPs.  He had a 1.53 WHIP and struck out 52.  Tigers should have their chances today.

The Orioles look about as good as you can after opening weekend, sweeping the Rays and outscoring them 12-3.  But I think their 3 game win streak ends today.

Fortunately, Luke Scott is not in today’s Orioles lineup.  Tigers look like this:

1 Jackson CF
2 Rhymes 2B
3 Ordonez RF
4 Cabrera 1B
5 Martinez C
6 Boesch LF
7 Peralta SS
8 Avila C
9 Inge 3b

Today is the styrofoam game of the three-game series as Max Scherzer eyes Detroit’s first victory and the Tigers try to keep the brooms in the closet.  The Tigers have yet to win a game; then again, neither have the Twins, so there.

Big Don Kelly will be filling in for Magglio Ordonez in right field, although strangely enough, not batting in his spot in the lineup.  That honor goes to Brennan Boesch, who yesterday became the first Tiger to strike out with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. Ordonez was taken out of yesterday’s game with soreness in his surgically-repaired ankle, but it was cold yesterday and this sort of thing is to be expected and Leyland was planning to give him a day off soon anyway and there is nothing to worry about, really there isn’t.

Today will also see the 2011 debut of Victor Martinez behind the plate.

The Tigers face Phil Hughes, whom the Yankees drafted with a compensatory pick awarded to them when they lost Andy Pettitte to the Astros, before they got him back again.  Hughes supposedly is featuring a new “slider-cutter” pitch which is different from his slider or his cutter.  Let us know if you see one.  Hughes also was the winning pitcher the last time the Yankees swept a series from Detroit.

Fun fact:  Miguel Cabrera and Austin Jackson are tied for the team lead in leading off innings (5).  At some point do they consider moving Cabrera up to the 3rd spot in the lineup?

Today’s sweep-busting Tiger lineup:

1 Jackson, CF

2 Santiago, 2B

3 Boesch, DH

4 Cabrera, 1B

5 Martinez, C

6 Raburn, LF

7 Kelly, RF

8 Peralta, SS

9 Inge, 3B

Tigers looks to get to .500 today with Brad Penny on the mound versus AJ Burnett.  I believe that Penny is going to be a critical factor in the Tigers’ hopes to compete this year, so I’m really looking forward to this game.  Penny had a decent spring with a 1.34 WHIP in 25 1/3 innings, striking out 15 and walking only 8.  Penny gets a lot of ground balls, holding a 1.35 career GB/FO ratio.

AJ Burnett’s 2010 was…not good.  An article in today’s New York Post said it best: “After a strong start in 2010, nearly everything about Burnett’s season looked awful. He finished the year with a 10-15 record, a 5.26 ERA, 16 wild pitches, 19 hit batsmen, one lost fight with a clubhouse door, one mysterious black eye and just one postseason start after manager Joe Girardi deemed him untrustworthy.”  The article goes on to mention that Burnett’s 2010 was one of the worst statistically in Yankee’s history.

On the other hand, this is a guy with a career ERA just under 4, a 1.32 WHIP, and a 8.22 K/9 ratio over 12 seasons.  That’s pretty salty.  The boys will definitely have their work cut out for them today.

Boesch will be in left field instead of Raburn, batting sixth, and Avila and Inge will flip flop in the 8 and 9 spots in the lineup.

Check out this article that Joe Posnanski wrote on SI.com covering the 32 best players in baseball.  JV and Miggy made the list.