{"id":702220,"date":"2026-05-18T12:54:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/702220\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T12:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:54:46","slug":"game-48-preview-tigers-open-up-4-game-home-series-vs-guardians-on-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/702220\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 48 Preview: Tigers open up 4-game home series vs Guardians on Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It has been a rough month for the Detroit Tigers, who have just four wins in 15 tries so far in May after dropping two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays in the first leg of their seven-game homestand. The visitors struck early on Sunday, getting a pair of runs in the first and third innings, and the offense simply could not catch up, resulting in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blessyouboys.com\/detroit-tigers-scores-standings\/91035\/detroit-tigers-recaps-blue-jays-jack-flaherty-dalton-varsho-vladimir-guerrero\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4-1 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On Monday, the Cleveland Guardians come to town for a four-game set that is as important as one can be before crossing the 50-game mark of the season. The Guards have won five of their last six, including a series-winning 10-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Tigers have their current de facto top starter taking the mound on Monday night, left-hander Framber Valdez. The 32-year-old is coming off a quality start last time out that saw him allow two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out seven New York Mets batters en route to a 10-inning team loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Amazingly, Valdez has not faced Cleveland since 2023, when he threw a complete-game no-hitter for the Houston Astros back when it was still called Minute Maid Park. What Tiger fans would do to see that happen again\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Opposite him is right-hander Slade Cecconi, who has been more or less replacement-level this season, logging just one quality start while turning in mixed results for Cleveland. The 26-year-old\u2019s last start was solid, throwing four shutout innings on five hits and a walk while striking out seven Los Angeles Angels in a team win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Cecconi faced Detroit twice last season, turning in a pair of quality starts, allowing one and two runs, respectively. He earned the win in the first game, 3-1, but was saddled with a 2-1 loss in the second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Take a look below at how the two match up for Monday evening\u2019s American League Central battle.<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Tigers (20-27) vs. Cleveland Guardians (26-22)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Time (ET): 6:40 p.m.<br \/>Place: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan<br \/>SB Nation Site: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coveringthecorner.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Covering the Corner<\/a><br \/>Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Game 48: LHP Framber Valdez (2-2, 4.32 ERA) vs. RHP Slade Cecconi (2-4, 5.60 ERA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a rough month for the Detroit Tigers, who have just four wins in 15 tries&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,82835,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-702220","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-detroit-tigers-game-information","12":"tag-detroittigers","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116595685000484526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702220","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=702220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}