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Cubs-Tigers Preview

Jun 25, 2009 - 4:25 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Chicago (34-33) at Detroit (39-31), 1:05 p.m. EDT

The Detroit Tigers keep rolling at home. The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, can't get anything started on the road.

Detroit tries to match its longest winning steak of the season Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park, where it will go for a three-game sweep of a Chicago club that's struggling to score.

Wednesday's 5-3 win over the Cubs was the Tigers' sixth straight overall and seventh in a row at home. Detroit (40-31) won a season-best seven consecutive games May 15-22.

"Thank God we're going to get them out of here before their bats get going, because they will," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

Miguel Cabrera got his bat going following Tuesday's 0-for-3 effort in the series opener. He hit a leadoff homer in the fourth and drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth. Cabrera is hitting .419 (13 for 31) with four homers and seven RBIs in his last eight games.

Gerald Laird hit the ball out of the park in the fifth, giving the Tigers two or more home runs for the seventh time in eight games.

Magglio Ordonez had two singles in four at-bats for his first hits since Leyland benched him for four games last week.

The AL Central-leading Tigers go for a 6-0 homestand, but give the ball to Armando Galarraga (3-7, 5.62 ERA), who hasn't won since April 26 at Kansas City. The right-hander is 0-7 with a 7.48 ERA in his last 10 starts and has allowed opponents to hit .343 off him during that stretch.

Galarraga left without a decision in Friday's 10-4 rain-shortened win over Milwaukee. He yielded four runs and eight hits, but did not return for the fifth inning following a two-hour, three-minute rain delay in the bottom of the fourth.

Galarraga, who has lasted 6 2-3 innings or fewer in 11 of 14 starts, will be facing the Cubs for the first time.

After averaging 6.5 runs during a four-game winning streak that ended Monday in Atlanta, Chicago (34-34) has scored seven total runs while losing the first three of its 10-game stretch away from Wrigley Field. Chicago has left 31 runners on base during its slide, including 13 on Wednesday.

"I might leave the couple guys that are doing their jobs in their places and draw out the rest of them," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of his next lineup. "We couldn't be any worse."

Derrek Lee, though, extended his career-best hitting streak to 21 with a seventh-inning single. It is the franchise's longest hitting streak since Jerome Walton hit in 30 straight games July 21-Aug. 20, 1989.

Geovany Soto went 2 for 4 on Wednesday with a solo homer. Soto, though, dropped a foul popup in the sixth by Marcus Thames, who then walked and scored on an infield single by Adam Everett.

Ted Lilly (7-4, 3.04) takes the mound for Chicago, which has won his last five starts. In his last outing, Lilly did not factor in the decision as the Cubs rallied to defeat Cleveland 6-5 in 13 innings Saturday.

"The way we've been able to come back, it's such a big deal to our club in knowing we can do that," Lilly told the team's official Web site after yielding three runs in six innings.

Lilly is 5-2 with a 2.78 ERA in his last 10 starts.

In four career starts in Detroit, he is 2-2 with a 4.03 ERA.

Chicago has lost six straight to Detroit since a 10-6 victory on July 7, 2001.