At 2:10 p.m. at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Justin Verlander (8-4, 3.71 ERA) will take the mound for the Detroit Tigers in the rubber match of an American League Central divisional matchup with the Royals. The game can be live streamed here; Tigers fans should listen in on 97.1 The Ticket, while Royals fans can hear the action on KCSP 610.
Verlander's ERA is higher than one would expect, and his WHIP is sitting at 1.35, a number Tigers fans are not used to seeing. Verlander has given up at least three runs in each of his past six starts; twice, in back-to-back starts on May 16th and May 22nd he was shelled for 13 runs combined in 7.2 innings of work.
There's not much reason to worry, however. The AL Central is one of baseball's weakest divisions, and Verlander's Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) shows that his ERA should be 2.56. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is at .355, which is way up from his career norms. He is fourth in Major League Baseball in strikeouts per nine innings (10.463) and ninth in total strikeouts (93).
His opponent will be "Big Game" James Shields (2-6, 2.81 ERA), who has been far better than his record shows. This definitely qualifies as a big game for Shields and the Royals, so expect this game to be a duel.
Shields, who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays for mega-prospect Wil Myers has won over his teammates with his routinely excellent outings. Royals slugger Billy Butler said, "He competes his tail off out there. It's unfortunate we couldn't get him a win (Friday), but it's a team win. If he can pitch like that, he'll win his fair share of games."
Shields is 5-1 in his career against the Tigers, but Shields says he's not paying attention to those numbers. "Whenever you have some success against a team, you always have some confidence, but I don't look back at what I've done in the past."
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