By
Hailee Miguel on Thursday, September 18
th 2014
The biggest series of the weekend is the battle for the AL Central. The division leading Detroit Tigers only lead the Kansas City Royals by a half game entering this huge three game series starting Friday night.
While Kansas City has shown signs of life in the Central over the years they’ve seemed to falter and quickly fall behind; this year that isn’t the case. Not only are they in the playoff hunt, but they are giving the Tigers a run for their money in an intense division battle. As it stands now, the Royals are tied with the Oakland A's for the first Wild Card spot and have a two game lead over the Seattle Mariners who are on the outside looking in.
Looking at this series, the Tigers will send their top three pitchers to the mound in hopes of gaining ground and setting themselves apart in the standings. Detroit has been playing well as of late going 7-3 in their last 10 games, while the Royals are 4-6 in their last 10.
Friday night’s matchup will feature Justin Verlander and Jason Vargas going head to head. Verlander has struggled a bit this year with his 4.81 ERA, and had a 5.59 ERA in three starts against the Royals this year. He’s had a rough month so far, and will look to turn it around this weekend in the first game of this key series.
Vargas has had a very nice season for the Royals, but facing guys like Miguel Cabrera, Torii Hunter, and Ian Kinsler is challenging for any pitcher. He has allowed nine runs in his last two starts, and like Verlander, will look to right the ship Friday night.
On Saturday night, Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Tigers with James Shields getting the call for the Royals. This will be the best pitching matchup of the series in what is expected to be a great pitcher's duel.
The series finale will feature Rick Porcello and Jeremy Guthrie. Porcello has been impressive throughout the season for the Tigers, and is a great guy to have on the mound for the final game of the series.
Like Porcello has done for the Tigers, Guthrie has been an important part of the Royals rotation and has been pitching extremely well as of late.
Now, the Tigers have dominated the Royals 11-5 in their first 16 games against each other, but are 1-6 at Kauffman Stadium this year. KC will be fighting to play in October and will look to continue their winning ways at home in their final regular season series against their division rival.
This weekend series will be a big test for both teams and a hard fought battle. The Royals will look to overtake the Tigers for first while Detroit hopes to extend their lead as they seek yet another AL Central title. Either way, this will be an entertaining series.