Just a couple games removed from the trade deadline, two of the three Wild Card spots are occupied by AL Central teams. The Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals currently hold the second and final spots, trailing the New York Yankees by a handful.

The Detroit Tigers on the other hand, find themselves slipping out of the conversation, as they found themselves skidding into the trade deadline, and haven’t regained composure since. 

Surprisingly enough, both the Twins and Royals were very quiet at the trade deadline earlier this week. The Yankees of course, making some major moves headlined by acquiring All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The Royals made minor tweaks, adding an insurance bat in Paul DeJong from division rival White Sox and some much needed help in the pen by acquiring Lucas Erceg from the Athletics. The Twins stayed stagnant, only adding Trevor Richards from the Blue Jays to their pen. Twins fans can look forward to plenty of homeruns coughed up by Richards in high leverage situations.

While the Red Sox and Mariners are right there in the picture, as well as the Rays despite being sellers at the deadline, the Royals and Twins continue to hold their ground and with favorable matchups this weekend, they could continue to add space.

Kansas City is in Detroit to take on the Tigers for a 4 game divisional series. They’ve already taken care of business in the first 2 games, outscoring the Tigers 16-3, including a 9 hit 7th inning in yesterday’s win. Those hits all came consecutively without an out recorded.

The Tigers, obviously picking a direction by selling at the deadline, got rid of expiring contracts in Jack Flaherty and Mark Canha. In doing so, they’ve created opportunities for players to step up, fill in, and contribute to wins.

Tigers Manager AJ Hinch on the team post deadline and the ‘next man up’ mentality.

“We’re going to be full of opportunity and that’s what we’re showing these guys. We’re giving them as much opportunity as we can and we want to win as many games as we can.”  

This last week has been a challenge for this Tigers team as they now find themselves 9.5 games out of a wild card spot after losing their last 5 contests. They’ve struggled to put up runs and what was once a top bullpen, now finds themselves amongst the bottom third in the league in ERA.

It’s hard to look around the park and find the same optimism that fans had in the first two months of the season, compared to facing the final 2 months of the season in August. As Hinch mentions.

“Every night, we have to find a way to play a little bit better, and play a little bit better, and get to the end of the game with a win.”

THE BANGER

Tigers Moneyline

Hinch’s Tigers will have two more chances to get back in the win column this weekend, as they look to pick up the pieces and get back in the win column, despite BET99 having Detroit as underdogs at home. When asked at the end of Friday night’s press conference if he knew who would start Saturday’s game his response was “No.”

It’s an uncertain play but the Tigers have been consistent in not dropping multiple games in a row. They’re currently tied for their longest losing streak (5) which was also set back in May.

This also means that the Royals have not yet named a starting pitcher yet either. This also leads me to believe that this game could be high-scoring, especially if both squads don’t know how to gameplan for the mystery opposing pitcher.

Twins Moneyline

This one is pretty self-explanatory. The Chicago White Sox have been abysmal to say the least, as they’ve gone 1-10 against Minnesota this year. Somehow, Garrett Crochet (7-6 / 3.07 ERA) is still a White Sox, which will make for a great pitching matchup as Bailey Ober (9-5 / 4.04 ERA) takes the mound for the Twins. Either way, feel safe taking the Twins here, even on the runline, as the White Sox are competing for the worst regular season record in, well, major league history.

You can find these two picks under the Down By Two Banger when you log into your BET99 account.