The AL Central division MLB Odds race may have fizzled a bit of late but that doesn’t mean that this terrific matchup of middle-America division rivals will lack any intensity. A month ago the highly competitive AL Central was up for grabs with the Twinkies, White Sox and Tigers all in position to grab the title. Since then the Tigers have fallen off the face of the earth, the Sox have also lost a step and the AL Central title looks to be Minnesota’s to lose.
But don’t think that means that these teams are going to go easy on each other. On Thursday September 2nd the Twins (76-56) will play host to the Tigers (65-67) in the MLB lines action and there is nothing more that the struggling Tigers would like better than to beat the pants the off of Minnesota and endanger the team’s playoff hopes. As is now, the Twins have a 4.0 game lead over the White Sox and an 11.0 game edge over the Tigers in the MLB odds standings.
The Twins are clearly the better team as their record indicates but when you’re talking about a game between bitter division rivals those stats mean very little. The Twins have split their last 10 game, winning 5 and losing 5 and neither franchise enters this matchup with much momentum; although the Tigers have slight edge in that department going 6-4 in the team’s past 10 games.
But the biggest difference between these two teams is their collective records within the division and it’s the reason why the Twins are 20 games over .500 and the Tigers 2 games below .500. The Twins have record of 34-18 against AL Central foes and the Tigers a weak 24-27 mark.
Further the Tigers are a terrible road team, one of the worst in the MLB odds competition with a record of 22-42 (20 games below .500). Those two stats say it all and spell out this club’s weaknesses in painfully obvious terms.
One thing in Detroit’s favor is they’ll have one of their studs on the mound as ace Justin Verlander (14-8, 3.58 ERA) is scheduled to get the start. And that may just be enough to get the Tigers a rare road win.
But more than likely the red hot Twins starter Scott Baker (12-9, 4.55 ERA), winner of his past 5 decisions will lead the home team to the Win.