May 9th-11th Pitching Matchups

Finshing up the season series with the Boston Red Sox was an exercise in futility, as the Tigers only managed to win two out of six overall. Detroit will have the opportunity to play the aggressor this weekend as they close out their season series with the other AL East power, the New York Yankees.

The bombers come in just as hobbled as they were before, and maybe even more so. Alex Rodriguez is still out, as is Jorge Posada. The pitching staff has become even more thin, with Phil Hughes making a trip to the disabled list, and Ian Kennedy being sent down.

Friday: Kenny Rogers vs. Kei Igawa

Kenny had one of his better starts this season in his first encounter with the Yankees, allowing only two earned runs in six innings of work. That was Rogers' second quality start of the season, and he followed it up with his third in the very next start (against the free swinging Twins). Eating innings and giving a quality start here and there is all the Tigers have asked of Rogers, and he hasn't been worse than most of the other Detroit starters.

Kei Igawa's rookie season didn't go the way anyone in New York would've liked it to. He had pretty good strikeout numbers with 54 punchouts in 67.2 innings, but was very prone to the longball and the walk. He walked almost five batters per nine innings, and the 15 home runs allowed in that sample size is astounding. This season for Scranton-Wilkes Barre (Yankees AAA affiliate) Igawa hasn't been very dominant. In almost 40 innings he's sporting a 3.86 ERA, and walking three batters per nine innings. It's not all dreary though. He's only allowed 3 home runs in those innings, and has struck out a batter per inning. This is probably going to be a high scoring affair.

Saturday: Jeremy Bonderman vs. Darrell Rasner

With Jeremy it seems like it's always something. He's either not striking guys out like he has the ability to, or he's walking too many, or he's giving up the longball. These are all things that he normally does well. When it seemed like he had turned a corner with his start last month against the Yankees, he re-instilled doubt in everyone with his up and down Boston start.

I'm not quite sure what to think of Rasner's only start of the season for the Yanks. It was indeed a quality start, but it was against the vaunted Seattle Mariners juggernaut. His groundballs and flyballs were almost half and half, and he did allow a home run. At the same time he managed to strike out four batters, walk no one, and only gave up five hits. The fact that he's been in the Yankees system for 3 years now and has only had 20 innings of work at a time leads me to believe that his ceiling is a league average starter. If that is indeed the case, this may be the only favorable pitching matchup of the series.

Sunday: Nate Robertson vs. Andy Pettitte

The more I look at his stats, the more I wonder if Nate is just the victim of a high BAbip. He's on pace to strike out more batters than any point in his career, and he's keeping his walks at about the same rate as he ever has (maybe even less, surprisingly enough). Even the 6 home runs he's given up aren't really out of the ordinary for him. Nate Robertson: Enigma

Pettitte had arguably his worst start of the season in his last tango with the Tigers, getting touched up for 5 runs in 6 innings of work. Other than that game, and an earlier encounter with the Cleveland Indians, he's been excellent. His last start against the aforementioned Indians was a 6.1 inning affair in which he struck out a season high 6 batters. As always, he can almost certainly be counted on for a quality start.



It may be a blessing in disguise that the Tigers are getting the Yankees season series out of the way in these first two months, because they won't be struggling this much for the rest of the season. If Detroit doesn't manage at least two, I will be a very shocked young man. But these are the Tigers, and they care not about your foolish predictions and expectations.