Tonight at 8:10 p.m. ET, a pair of American League Central teams square off in the rubber match of a three-game set as the Detroit Tigers (92-66) face the Minnesota Twins (66-91) at Target Field in Minnesota. The game can be live streamed here. Tigers fans can hear all the action on 97.1 The Ticket while Twins fans can do the same at 96.3 K-TWIN.
After dropping the first game of this series Monday night, Detroit clinched a playoff berth with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday and is now looking to notch its third consecutive AL Central title with a win tonight or a Cleveland Indians loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Detroit's timing couldn't be better as it sends MLB wins-leader Max Scherzer (20-3, 3.00 ERA) to the mound for his final start of the regular-season as he goes up against Minnesota's Kevin Correia (9-12, 4.29).
Detroit's magic number is down to one as it holds a 4.5 game lead over Cleveland entering tonight. Scherzer has a 2.70 ERA and is 2-0 against the Twins through two starts this year while striking out 16 through 13.1 innings against them, and he is a favorite to win the Cy Young in the AL this year.
"You relish these moments," Scherzer told MLB.com Tuesday. "You play the game to win. You play the game to be on top. And tomorrow we have a chance to be on top of the American League Central. That's always a special moment because it's never easy to get to the playoffs. For me, I'm going to treat it like Game 7 of the World Series, get ready for the playoffs. That's the type of mentality it's going to be in the playoffs. Might as well do it in my last start of the season."
Correia meanwhile, knows that a win for Minnesota won't change the outcome of the season as the Twins aren't making the playoffs this year, but the team can play spoiler and leave the Tigers' champagne on ice for at least one more night as long as the Indians also win.
"Another win isn't really going to change our season that much," Correia said per MLB.com. "I'm just going to go out there and throw a good game. Wins and losses are kind of out of our hand but at this point in my career, I'm trying to win games. I'd rather give up a few runs and get the win than throw a good game and not get the win."
One person Correia will have to look out for is Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera who is hitting .440 off of him lifetime with a homer and eight RBIs in 25 career at-bats. Cabrera, a candidate for the AL Most Valuable Player award, leads the league in RBIs (137), batting average (.347), on-base percentage (.443), slugging (.642) and on-base plus slugging (1.085) while his 44 homers trail Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis (52) by just eight.
Minnesota's Ryan Doumit, meanwhile, needs just one long ball for the 100th of his career.
The Tigers are looking to celebrate a third consecutive AL Central title while the Twins look to play spoiler when these two team's collide at Target Field tonight.
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