Detroit Tigers (70-77) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (91-56)
September 17, 2021 7:10 pm EDT
The Line: Tampa Bay Rays -256 / Detroit Tigers +180; Over/Under: 7.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Detroit Tigers and the Tampa Bay Rays meet in MLB action from Tropicana Field on Friday night.
The Detroit Tigers will look to bounce back after a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Rays on Thursday. Niko Goodrum and JEimer Candelario each had a solo home run to make up the scoring for the Tigers in the losing effort while Willi Castro, Derek Hill and Robbie Grossman all had base hits as the Tigers had just six hits as a team in the losing effort. Tyler Alexander ended up with the loss, falling to 2-3 on the year after allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out four over 5.2 innings of work. Casey Mize will start here and is 7-8 with a 3.66 ERA and 108 strikeouts this season.
The Tampa Bay Rays will look to build off of their win over the Tigers from Thursday. Mike Zunino led the way with a two-run home run while Yandy Diaz had a solo shot as well in the winning effort. Randy Arozarena and Manuel Margot each had RBIs as well to finish off the scoring for the Rays as a team in the win while Joey Wendle, Kevin Kiermaier and Brandon Lowe each had base hits as well in the victory. Dietrich Enns got the win in relief for the Rays to improve to 2-0 on the year as a result. Luis Patino will start here and is 4-3 with a 4.62 ERA and 65 strikeouts this season.
Detroit is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall and 9-4 in their last 13 games against the AL East while the under is 10-3-1 in their last 14 game two matchups. Tampa Bay is 38-14 in their last 52 home games and 39-15 in their last 54 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 4-0-1 in their last 5 games against the AL Central.
This is a harder game to call than one would think as I’m a Casey Mize fan and the Tigers are always providing value, but the Rays, while they’ve run hot and cold lately, keep winning when we write them off even if it’s just on a game-to-game basis. I think this is easily a spot where we have to side with the under here as Mize will come to play and the Rays are specialists in terms of limiting damage on the board.
