The Detroit Tigers scored a season-high eight runs during the opener of a four-game series against the visiting Minnesota Twins, and they will look to carry that momentum into a straight doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
The doubleheader was necessitated after Thursday’s scheduled opener was postponed by rain.
The Tigers took the delayed series opener 8-2 on Friday. Mark Canha hit his third homer of the season, and Spencer Torkelson and Matt Vierling also drove in two runs apiece.
“This is the first game in awhile we got it rolling like that,” Canha said during a postgame TV interview. “It was good to see guys hit with runners in scoring position and we really did a good job of just passing the baton.”
Manager A.J. Hinch tweaked his lineup, moving Riley Greene into the leadoff spot. Greene responded with an RBI double and scored two runs.
“To be honest, you’re a leadoff guy for one at-bat and it’s the first one of the game. That’s it,” he said prior to the contest. “I’m not really going to change anything. I’m going to be aggressive and try to get a good pitch to hit.”
Kenta Maeda (0-1, 9.00 ERA) is slated to start the opener for Detroit. He’s made two starts this season, most recently last Saturday when he allowed three runs and two hits to Oakland in 5 2/3 innings. He took the loss, as the Tigers were blanked 4-0.
Maeda will be facing his former team after signing a two-year contract with Detroit in November. He appeared in 53 games (52 starts) from 2020-23 with the Twins.
Maeda posted a 6-8 record and 4.23 ERA for Minnesota in 21 appearances (20 starts) last season after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which sidelined him throughout the 2022 campaign.
His former catcher, Ryan Jeffers, is looking forward to matching up against Maeda.
“It’s exciting. It’s cool to see somebody that you’ve played with for awhile,” he said. “It can be a little weird, especially for a catcher, because you know what they do, how they pitch, what they’re trying to do. What he likes to do in certain counts. So you can’t think about his patterns, because he knows you know them.”
Maeda made one career start against Minnesota as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017, giving up two runs (one earned) in five innings and picking up the win.
Joe Ryan (0-1, 3.18 ERA) is the Twins’ scheduled starter in Game 1. He gave up three runs and five hits in six innings in a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians a week ago.
Ryan is 4-1 with a 3.57 ERA in six career starts against the Tigers.
Detroit will call up Matt Manning from Triple-A Toledo to pitch the nightcap. That scenario already has played out this season.
Manning pitched the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Mets on April 4. Manning didn’t allow a hit in 5 2/3 innings, though he issued four walks. He’s 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA in three career starts against Minnesota.
Similarly, the Twins are expected to recall Simeon Woods Richardson from Triple-A St. Paul to make a spot start. It would be the third career appearance for the right-hander.
He made his career debut in 2022 against Detroit, allowing three runs in five innings and taking the loss.
Minnesota won’t have shortstop Carlos Correa available. He suffered a right oblique strain in Friday’s contest.
–Field Level Media