ON DECK: Tigers play first road series of season vs. White Sox

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The Detroit Tigers picked up their first win of the 2018 season in what was a mini two-game series at home against division rival Kansas City, with the rubber match on Wednesday being postponed due to inclement weather.

Detroit plated six runs and pounded out 10 hits in Monday’s win over the Royals, the third game already in which they scored 6+ runs, but were shut out for the second time and limited to just three knocks in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat.

UP NEXT

The Tigers now kick off their first road trip of the season with the next six games against American League Central foes. The first three will come this weekend on the south side of Chicago. Detroit went just 9-10 against the White Sox in 2017, the first time they posted a non-winning record in a single season against the Pale Hose since 2009.

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Chicago is also in the midst of a full-blown rebuild but many believe they are at least a year, maybe two, ahead of the Tigers after their year-plus flurry of trades that netted them a plethora of high-level prospects. The majority of those blue-chippers are pitchers — some of whom are with the big league club now — but they still have some young impact bats.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

GAME 1 | Jordan Zimmermann (DET) vs. James Shields (CWS)

Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 6.00 ERA) will be making his second start of the season on the south side. The Tigers’ Opening Day starter allowed four over six innings of work in that wild 13-10 extra-innings loss to the Pirates. Overall, Zimmermann was better than the numbers would suggest and he had command, striking out eight batters versus just one base on balls.

36-year-old James Shields (1-0, 6.00 ERA) matched Zimmermann’s line in Chicago’s Opening Day last week in Kansas City, allowing four runs over six innings of work. The 13-year veteran carries a career 3.98 ERA into what will be his 374th career start on Thursday and a 4.43 ERA in 25 career outings against Detroit.

GAME 2 | Michael Fulmer (DET) vs. Lucas Giolito (CWS)

Michael Fulmer (0-1, 1.13 ERA) was the victim of one of those two shutout losses for the Tigers already this season. Fulmer on Easter Sunday allowed just one run on four hits over eight innings against the Pirates. Despite the early success in his young career, the 25-year-old has a 4.41 ERA in five starts against Chicago.

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Lucas Giolito (0-0, 4.50 ERA) was the very definition of a quality start in his first outing of 2018, yielding three earned runs in six innings pitched. The 23-year-old is one of those highly touted prospects the White Sox recently acquired through trades. Giolito has appeared in just 14 big league games (12 starts) thus far, including seven shutout frames against Detroit last season.

GAME 3 | Mike Fiers (DET) vs. Reynaldo Lopez (CWS)

The Tigers have yet to officially confirm the starter for Sunday’s series finale but all signs point towards to it being Mike Fiers making his team debut. Detroit placed their free agent signing on the DL to start the season with back soreness. However, the postponed game on Wednesday allowed the Tigers to skip Daniel Norris’ spot in the rotation and presumably activate Fiers for Sunday.

Fiers has had great success against the White Sox in his career, albeit a small sample size. He posts a sub-1.00 ERA in three starts against Chicago.

Renaldo López (0-0, 1.50 ERA) is another one of those highly thought of arms in the White Sox system, he came over with Giolito from Washington in the Adam Eaton trade. Chicago gave Lopez eight starts down the stretch in 2017 and, like Giolito, figures to get every opportunity to prove his worth to the organization.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Second baseman Dixon Machado has gotten off to a nice start offensively, collecting five hits in 20 official at-bats, three of the five good for doubles. He’s also driven in four runs and only punched out three times. Machado also had good numbers against the White Sox last season, hitting at a .357 clip (10 for 28).

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And for Chicago, Tigers fans know all too well that José Abreu is bound to do some major damage. Abreu has done nothing but flat-out rake since his rookie year in 2014, but he’s a career .345 hitter with a 1.006 OPS in 73 games against Detroit pitching.

SERIES INFO

  • Game 1 | Thu, April 5 @ 4:10 p.m. ET
  • Game 2 | Sat, April 7 @ 2:10 p.m. ET
  • Game 3 | Sun, April 8 @ 2:10 p.m. ET^

All games can be seen on Fox Sports Detroit [^ = FSD Plus] unless otherwise noted. Be sure to check your local listings for regional radio broadcasts.