Desperate to avoid a four-game series sweep, the slumping Tigers turn to Jack Flaherty as they close out their trip to Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:40 p.m. EST at Target Field, with the AL Central matchup airing on ESPN Unlimited and MLB.TV.<\/p>\n
Detroit (4-8) enters the series finale in a tailspin, having lost four straight games and eight of its first 12 to open the season. Following the 8-6 defeat on Wednesday night, the Tigers have been outscored 19-11 in the first three games of the series. Despite a solid start to the season from hitters like Colt Keith (.351 average, .514 slugging percentage), the team has posted a dismal 2-7 record on the road.<\/p>\n
Flaherty (0-1, 7.56 ERA) will take the mound to try to stop the bleeding. The right-hander has struggled in the first two starts, issuing eight walks and eight runs over just 8 1\/3 innings. He holds a 4.37 ERA in four career starts against Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Minnesota (6-6) chased Tigers ace Framber Valdez early on Wednesday, tagging him for six runs in the first inning. The Twins offense is a bit feast-or-famine, with 10 home runs counteracting the .221 team batting average. Josh Bell has paced the offense with nine RBIs and two home runs on the young season, with Victor Caratini leading the team with a .294 average.<\/p>\n
The Twins send Mick Abel (0-2, 11.05 ERA) to the mound, where the right-hander has surrendered 14 hits and seven walks over just 7 1\/3 innings. Abel carries a 2.86 WHIP across one start and one relief appearance.<\/p>\n
Tigers -1.5 (+129)Twins +1.5 (-141)Over 8.5 (+104)Under 8.5 (-115)<\/p>\n
Note: The above data was collected on April 9, 2026, and may have changed since writing.<\/p>\n
Tigers vs Twins Betting TrendsThe Tigers are 2-7 against the spread when playing on the road.The Twins are 4-2 against the spread in home games.The Tigers have lost seven straight road matchups.The Twins have lost 13 of their last 20 games at home.The total has gone under in 14 of the Twins’ last 20 games.The Twins have won four of the last five matchups against the Tigers in Minnesota.Tigers vs Twins Injury ReportsTrey Sweeney, SS \u2014 10-day IL (shoulder).Bailey Horn, RP \u2014 15-day IL (elbow).Justin Verlander, SP \u2014 15-day IL (hip).Scott Effross, RP \u2014 Day to day (oblique).Tyler Owens, SP \u2014 Day to day (hip).Troy Watson, SP \u2014 Day to day (elbow).David Festa, SP \u2014 60-day IL (shoulder).Travis Adams, RP \u2014 15-day IL (triceps).Pablo Lopez, SP \u2014 60-day IL (elbow).Tigers vs Twins Predictions and Picks<\/p>\n
“Minnesota comes into this matchup looking for the rare four-game sweep, but they were lucky to get the win on Wednesday, as they allowed a lot of baserunners. The Twins are 4-2 at home this year, while the Tigers are 2-7 on the road. Detroit has lost four in a row, and they have allowed 24 runs during that span. The Tigers are starting Flaherty, who can’t be trusted, while Able has been awful for the Twins. Take the over here.” \u2014 David Racey,\u00a0PickDawgz<\/a><\/p>\n Expect lots of fireworks over Target Field on Thursday. Pitting Flaherty against a Minnesota offense that just exploded for eight runs on 10 hits against Valdez seems like a recipe for disaster. On the other side, Abel has somehow been even worse, carrying an ugly 11.05 ERA and 2.86 WHIP. With two starters consistently putting traffic on the basepaths and taxing their bullpens early, expect plenty of run production to push this game past the total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Desperate to avoid a four-game series sweep, the slumping Tigers turn to Jack Flaherty as they close out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,60,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-671691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-minnesota-twins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116375291393622840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}