Detroit (7-6) at Oakland (6-7), 10:05 pm EDT
OAKLAND, California (Ticker) - Esteban Loaiza faces a tough
challenge Tuesday as he looks for his first win with the Oakland
Athletics in the opener of three-game series against the
Detroit Tigers.
Loaiza (0-2, 11.42 ERA), who will be pitching at home after two
road starts, has failed to get through five innings in his first
two outings, including Wednesday's loss at Minnesota when he
yielded six runs in four innings.
The righthander will be facing a Tigers lineup that has has
belted a major-league best 26 homers, nine by first baseman
Chris Shelton, who homered for the second straight game Monday
but could not stop Detroit from dropping a 10-2 contest at
Cleveland.
Promising rookie Justin Verlander (1-1, 6.52) looks to bounce
back from Thursday's dreadful performance against Chicago, when
he gave up seven runs in just 2 2/3 innings. In his first
start, Verlander tossed seven scoreless frames.
Oakland hopes the 23-year-old righthander is off of his game as
it tries to improve on its .241 batting average, which has been
a big factor in the team's losing five of its last six contests.