The Detroit Tigers open a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Monday night at Target Field, with RHP Jackson Jobe set to face RHP Taj Bradley in Game 137. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET, and Detroit enters the matchup coming off a 6-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday afternoon.
For Jobe, the start is another checkpoint in a return that began earlier this month after Tommy John surgery. Over his last two starts, he has a 1.86 ERA and a 3.81 FIP across 9 2/3 innings, with eight hits, six walks, seven strikeouts and one hit batter allowed. Those are the kind of numbers that can steady a team on the road, even if the Tigers split their weekend series with the Dodgers by winning one of three games.
The matchup matters because Detroit is beginning a seven-game road trip and doing it against an AL Central opponent with its own pitching questions. Bradley has posted a 5.40 ERA and a 3.98 FIP over his last five starts, allowing 28 hits and 14 walks while striking out 30 batters. He did work six and one-third innings of one-run ball against the Tigers on April 7 in Minneapolis, then returned on June 9 in Detroit and gave up five runs, seven hits and three home runs.
That split history gives Monday night a sharper edge than a typical series opener. Jobe has kept Detroit in games while still finding his feel after surgery, but the club arrives after a flat loss to the Dodgers and now has to turn that into momentum against a division rival. The next two games at Target Field will show whether the Tigers can turn a road trip opener into an early push in the AL Central, or whether Bradley and the Twins can slow them down again.
