Alright, let's get down to business in this Major League matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers at the charmingly not-so-hitter-friendly Comerica Park.
Let's take a look at the starting pitchers. On the mound for the Dodgers is James Paxton. His performance this season is a bit, shall we say, rough around the edges... 4.34 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and a k/9 of 6.4? Let's hope his mom doesn't keep track of those stats. Moving on from that uncomfortable conversation, we have Tarik Skubal for the Tigers nailing it on the hill with a stunning 2.40 ERA, a dashing 0.91 WHIP, and knocking batters out at 10.9 per nine innings. The guy even looks good when he's sweating.
Who's standing out this season for the Dodgers and the Tigers? For the guys rocking Dodger blue, we see Shohei Ohtani hitting .323, Austin Barnes at .310 and Freddie Freeman close behind with .299. All three have been hitting runs in, with Ohtani smashing 13 homers and stealing 8 bases. On the other side, look out for Andy Ibanez of the Tigers. Despite living up to his name and only having 6 RBIs, he's raking at a .341 clip - let's not bother mentioning his home run count here, it'll upset him.
Now let's look at some history. The last time these two teams clashed, we saw a 2-1 result in favor of the Tigers – convenient if you happen to love the smug smell of burnt rubber after a skid-marked sweep.
In terms of season records, let's just throw it out there - Dodgers are sitting pretty on 55-39, while the Tigers are trying to claw their way back into relevance with 45-49. Might be time to start padding the resumes, fellas.
Look, if we take into account recent numbers only, the Dodgers are struggling, shall we say showing some cracks in the armor is a nice way to put it. As for the Tigers, they are finally showing some fangs, much like my ex-mother-in-law finally showing some grit in her dentures.
With all this, I almost forgot we were making a prediction here. I was too busy laying down truth bombs. Well, given the info we've disseminated about the starting pitchers and player performance, coupled with the state of recent play, you might just want to venture a guess where I'm heading with this.
Albert’s Prediction: Detroit Tigers by 2