Today at 1:07 p.m. ET, the American League Division Series shifts to Detroit as the Oakland Athletics (1-1) and Tigers (1-1) each try to take control of the series in ALDS Game 3 from Comerica Park in Detroit. The game can be live streamed here. Oakland fans can hear all the action on the radio by turning their dials to 95.7 FM The Game while Tigers fans can access it on 97.1 The Ticket.
Detroit turns to Anibal Sanchez (14-8, 2.57 ERA) to try and help them swing the series momentum in their favor while Jarrod Parker (12-8, 3.97) will toe the rubber for the Athletics who will look to quiet the hometown crowd in Detroit. Sanchez led the American League in ERA this season and hopes that his success can carry over to the postseason.
After scoring three runs in the first inning of the very first game of this series, Detroit has been stymied and hasn't scored in 17 innings. Their three runs in the opening frame of Game 1 was enough for a 3-2 victory, but the Tigers were shutout Saturday night as the A's sole run was good enough for a 1-0 win to nod the series up at one game apiece heading to Detroit.
"You expect more high-scoring games based on both offenses," A's manager Bob Melvin said to MLB.com, "but pitching can rule the day."
Pitching has ruled the day and this series through the first two games, but the Tigers know how potent their offense can be and will look to get it going while feeding off of the home crowd.
"It would have been nice to take two in Oakland," Tigers right fielder Torii Hunter said per MLB.com. "But they're a Major League ball club, American League West champions. They're a professional team. We took one of two there, and we'll go home now and see if we can get it rolling."
Hunter is 1-for-7 in the series with a single and three strikeouts. Detroit has just two extra-base hits in the series--stemming all the way back to the first inning of Game 1 when the Tigers had two doubles--and are hitting just .217 through the two games as a collective unit thus far.
The A's meanwhile, haven't had too much luck either as the team is batting .174 as a group, while Yoenis Cespedes has led the charge, going 4-for-8 with a homer, a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored.
The Tigers will hope to get their biggest gun going in third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who is battling groin and abdominal issues. Cabrera led the majors in the regular season in average (.348) OBP (.442), slugging (.636) and OPS (1.078), and was second in homers (44) and RBIs (137), but so far through two games he's just 2-for-8 with an RBI.
The Tigers and Athletics will both hope that a change of ballpark will bring life to their bats after both teams have been stagnant through the first two games. Each team is seeking whatever momentum it can get but only one team will be able to take a 2-1 series lead when these two teams square off this afternoon.
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