It's the home opener!
The Tigers are not off to a great start, having lost seven of their first nine games. I expected them to be quite a bit better this season - it seemed impossible that a bunch of decent hitters would continue to swing the bats as badly as they all did in 2022. But so far, they've picked up exactly where they left off. They've scored just 27 runs in their first nine games, and the team is collecively hitting .205/.261/.292, which is not excellent.
The Jays come home off a 6-4 road trip, which is certainly a happy result - they were outscored 58-54 in the ten games, and allowing 5.8 runs per game is obviously not the path to prosperity and post-season glory.
I notice that the Tampa Devil Fishies are off to the best start the AL has seen since the 1987 Brewers, who won their first 13 games, and 17 of their first 18. By the beginning of May, those Brewers stood at 20-3 and had a five game lead on the rest of the division.
They then lost 12 in a row, and eventually finished third, seven games back of the TIgers. It's a long season, and it's not even the middle of April.
Matchups!
Tue 11 Apr - Manning (1-0, 3.18) vs Manoah (1-0, 4.35)
Wed 12 Apr - Rodriguez (0-2, 6.30) vs Gausman (1-1, 0.00)
Thu 13 Apr - Turnbull (0-2, 13.50) vs Bassitt (1-1, 10.61)
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20230411092039612