Astros Set Tigers Probables Pitting New Ace Against Former Ace

The number of injuries that have struck multiple organizations to start this season is truly baffling, and one team that has had to try to salvage its season with a lengthy injured list has been both the Houston Astros and the Detroit Tigers.

While these two are in different time zones, as well as divisions, they look awfully alike on a broad scale. Both of these ballclubs were tabbed as division title contenders, but both sit more than just a few games under .500.

The Tigers had been playing without their back-to-back Cy Young Award-winning starter for a lengthy stint, while the Astros were without Hunter Brown for even longer. But Detroit got their man back Saturday, and the Astros' is finally set to return, against his former teammate, Framber Valdez, no less.

Probable Matchups at Daikin Park

Peter Lambert throws a baseball in an orange Astros jerse — Astros pitcher Peter Lambert (38) delivers during the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. | William Liang-Imagn Images

As these two continue to have eerily similar seasons, it makes sense that they have both caught fire as of late, but the way Detroit has come alive is something that nobody could have ever dreamt of as the team has an OPS of .860 in June.

This pitching plan has to be executed to perfection, or even the historic production from Yordan Alvarez won't be enough to lead this team past the Tigers. Even though it is very early on, all of these games mean a lot.

Mon, Jun 15 • 7:10 PM CDT: Kai-Wei Teng vs. Tory Melton
Tues, Jun 16 • 7:10 PM CDT: Hunter Brown vs. Framber Valdez
Wed, Jun 17 • 1:10 PM CDT: Peter Lambert vs. Casey Mize

Now, Tarik Skubal isn't going to be throwing on the hill this series, but Casey Mize has been putting together an outstanding season of his own. The only real outlier as of late has been Valdez. These are big matchups for the Astros offense.

The key to stealing some wins here is getting their starters out of the game, as their bullpen has been the Achilles heel of their season. Getting to the relievers is going to lead to W's and keep the Astros from falling further behind.

Luckily, Houston is in arguably the worst division in baseball, so they aren't eyeing the wild card spot by any means as they are seemingly just as close to the top of the AL West as the No.7 slot into the postseason.

That being said, the Astros are 33-40 right now, so the first barrier they need to cross is that .500 line which will only come by focusing on one series, one game, at a time, and that starts Monday evening with Teng.

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