Tonight at 9:07 p.m. ET, the Detroit Tigers (1-0) and Oakland Athletics (0-1) continue their best-of-five series in American League Division Series Game 2 action live from the O.co Coliseum in Oakland. The game can be live streamed here. Detroit fans can tune into all the action on the radio by turning their dials to 97.1 The Ticket while Oakland fans can hear it on 95.7 FM The Game
Justin Verlander (13-12, 3.46 ERA) takes the mound for the Tigers on the heels of Max Scherzer's dominating performance in Game 1 while rookie Sonny Gray (5-3, 2.67) tries to draw Oakland even. Verlander won the American League Cy Young and MVP Awards just two years ago, while Gray makes just the 11th start of his career.
Oakland didn't have much luck against Scherzer in Game 1, as the team only managed six base runners and struck out 16 times in Friday night's 3-2 loss. Oakland knows it needs to find its offense or it could find itself in a 2-0 hole heading to Detroit for Game 3.
"We need all our components in this series," leadoff hitter Coco Crisp said per MLB.com. "We need everybody."
The A's got a bit of a lift from Yoenis Cespedes in Game 1 with a two-run homer in the seventh inning, but the Athletics still fell short by a run and couldn't do much against Scherzer or the Tigers bullpen.
The Tigers meanwhile have one of the most potent lineups in the game that includes third baseman and AL MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera and first baseman Prince FIelder.
Cabrera led the league in average (.348), OBP (.442), slugging (.636) and OPS (1.078) and was second in homers (44) and RBIs (137) during yet another dominant regular season despite dealing with injuries throughout the year. Fielder, meanwhile, hit .279 with 25 homers and 106 RBIs while playing in all 162 games for the third year in a row, as the two sluggers helped lead Detroit to its third AL Central division title in as many years.
The Tigers feel as though they could be at a disadvantage due to the limited times Gray has pitched and the fact that they've never seen him before.
"The problem with Sonny Gray," Tigers manager Jim Leyland told MLB.com, "is we don't know much about him, other than what we've seen on TV."
The Athletics won 96 games to earn home field advantage in the series after winning their second consecutive AL West title, but could face in an elimination game in Detroit if they don't turn the series around with a win tonight.
Detroit will try to take a 2-0 stranglehold on the series while Oakland will attempt to nod it up heading into Detroit when these two teams face off tonight.
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