BASEBALL: Tigers determined not to fall too far behind Guardians

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch sees the Cleveland Guardians as the heavyweights in the American League Central.

"We know the division runs through Cleveland, as much as we want to say otherwise," he said. "They've done it. And so we have to take that personally and overcome them in order to get to where we want to get to. That's the brutal truth."

The Tigers, who have lost 11 of their past 13 games, already have a lot of catching up to do. They enter the second contest of a four-game home series against the first-place Guardians on Tuesday 6 1/2 games back.

The Guardians won on Monday for the sixth time in seven games, posting an 8-2 victory in the series opener.

Cleveland won the division title in three of the past four seasons. Detroit made the playoffs as a wild card the past two seasons. The Guardians knocked the Tigers out of the playoffs in 2024 AL Division Series.

Last season, the Tigers controlled the division most of the way but collapsed in September and Cleveland caught them. Detroit responded by eliminating the Guardians in the wild-card round.

"This is such a fun rivalry that's developed the last couple of years because both teams have been really good and trading punches here or there," Hinch said. "That stuff is great for our division. It's great for two cities and two franchises that are fighters. We like to compete."

Keider Montero (2-3, 3.65 ERA) will start on Tuesday for Detroit. The right-hander posted consecutive quality starts this month against the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. However, in his latest outing, against the New York Mets on Thursday, he allowed four runs and four hits in 4 2/3 innings and took the loss as the Tigers fell 9-4.

Two seasons ago, Montero pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings in his lone career regular-season outing against the Guardians. He also tossed three scoreless frames against them in two relief appearances that postseason.

Montero will be opposed by Parker Messick (5-1, 2.35). The Cleveland left-hander won his past two starts, most recently beating the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday. He gave up two runs and four hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings while recording seven strikeouts.

Messick revealed afterward he won without his best stuff.

"It was definitely one of those days," he said. "It was probably the best pregame bullpen I've ever thrown in my life, and then it just did not translate to the game. It was one of those where I just didn't have a great feel for all the pitches, especially early. I had to kind of fight through that."

Manager Stephen Vogt has marveled at the 25-year-old rookie's maturity.

"You could see (Messick) and Hedgie (catcher Austin Hedges) just figuring out how to get in the zone, how to keep them off balance," Vogt said. "Man, did he make pitch after pitch after pitch. As the outing was going, it was like, 'Man, how's he doing? How's he doing?' But he just kept going. It was a very mature outing by him."

Messick gave up four runs in five innings last September in his lone career outing against Detroit.

-Field Level Media/Reuters