Rays vs. Tigers Pick
Can the Tampa Bay Rays salvage a four-game split with the Detroit Tigers when the two close out their weekend series today at 1:10PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, Detroit is the slight favorite today, as the Tigers are getting odds of -110 to win, while the Rays are getting a money line of +100 to prevail. The over/under total for the game has been set at 9.5 runs.
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The pitching matchup tonight has Jacob Faria (2-0, 1.42 ERA) of the Rays pitching against Buck Farmer (2-0, 3.52) of the Tigers. Faria has pitched in two games this year, lasting 6.1 innings in each start while allowing just one run each time. He has 13 strikeouts with three walks and a 0.95 WHIP. Farmer had two scoreless starts to open his 2017 season, but then got rocked by the Diamondbacks last week. He allowed six runs over just 2.1 innings. He now has 20 strikeouts with three walks and a 1.17 WHIP.
After Detroit won the first two games in this series by a combined score of 18-7, Tampa got on track Saturday with a 3-2 win. The Rays are now 36-35 overall and 15-20 on the road while Detroit is 32-35 overall and 18-15 at home.
Saturday’s game saw some solid pitching. Chris Archer went six innings and struck out eight to get his fifth win of the year. Michael Fulmer went 6.2 innings and allowed three runs to take his fifth loss of 2017. The two bullpens combined for 5.1 innings of scoreless work. Mallex Smith had the game-winning RBI single in the seventh to lead Tampa while Daniel Robertson drove in a pair of runs. Miguel Cabrera hit his seventh home run of the season, his second of the series after failing to hit one in nearly a month.
Faria has been pretty impressive for Tampa so far, limiting both Chicago and Toronto. Now he faces another tough lineup in Detroit. Farmer looked good in his first two starts, but was a mess against Arizona last week. Tampa isn’t Arizona, but the cat may be out of the bag on Farmer. Tampa may be able to capitalize the way Arizona did. I don’t think Faria is going to struggle on the road, so some early run support should be enough for him to win.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: TAMPA BAY RAYS +100