The 2020 regular season for the Detroit Tigers comes to an end on Sunday when playing the Kansas City Royals. The Tigers have had another disappointing season at 22-34 and in last place in the American League Central currently 12 games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins. The Tigers have also lost five straight including the first two games of this series with the Royals.
Kansas City is 25-33 after defeating the Detroit Tigers on Friday in the first and the second game of the series against their AL Central rivals. The Royals are in fourth place in the AL Central 10 games behind the Twins. Kansas City has won each of the last three and four of the last five but is far off the pace 9 games behind both the second and third-place teams in the division.
Detroit's pitching staff may be baseball's worst
Spencer Turnbull has a team-high four victories and has the lowest ERA of any starting pitcher for Detroit at 3.97, but the Tigers have a poor pitching staff to say the least. Detroit's team ERA is 5.72 which is 29th in baseball and it's 1.44 WHIP is 24th. At the plate opposing hitters are averaging .268 against Detroit pitching which is 26th in baseball. The starting rotation has performed poorly all season for Detroit with just eight Quality Starts which is 27th in the majors. Sunday’s starting pitcher for Detroit will be Tarik Skubal who is 1-3 with a 6.00 ERA. The Tigers have lost each of the left-handers last four starts.
At the plate, Detroit is slightly better than on the mound. Veteran first baseman Miguel Cabrera has supplied most of the power for the Tigers with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs which leads Detroit in both categories. However, Detroit has scored just 244 runs which is 22nd in baseball and much of that is due to the fact they have the 28th worst on-base percentage of just .305 and 20th worst slugging percentage .402. With few runners getting on base, even fewer are scoring for the Tigers, a team batting average of .246 which is just 16th all of baseball does not help the cause.
Kansas City needs to acquire big bats during the off-season
The Kansas City Royals are led in home runs by catcher Salvador Perez with 11 and third baseman Maikel Franco has the team lead in RBIs with 37. However, the Royals have hit as a team just 65 home runs and knocked in just 231 runs, while scoring a total of 242 which is 23rd and baseball. The Royals team batting averages .246, which is 15th in baseball and it's slugging percentage is 18th at .403. However, this season, second baseman Whit Merrifield is hitting just .280 and not getting on base as often as the last two seasons, when he hit over .300 in both.
On the mound, Brad Keller has a team-high five wins while Danny Duffy leads the Royals in strikeouts with 57. The Royals team ERA is 4.38 which is 15th in baseball but its WHIP of 1.39 is even lower at 22nd. Kansas City pitching is allowing opposing hitters to average .255 the mound which is 24th in baseball and the number of Quality Starts for Royals pitchers is just 10, which is 24th in the majors. Starting on the mound for Kansas City on Sunday will be Brady Singer, who is 3-5 with a 4.40 ERA and 56 strikeouts. The Royals have won three of Singer’s last 5 starts.
Notable Trends
- Kansas City has won each of the last seven when tagged as the favorite
- The Royals have won seven of the last eight at home
- Detroit has lost 67 of the last 88 against a team from the American League Central
- The Tigers have lost 52 of the last 69 as the underdog on the road
