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Tigers-Rangers Preview

Apr 23, 2010 - 7:25 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Detroit (9-7) at Texas (6-9), 8:05 p.m. EDT

Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera is off to a red-hot start, leading the AL in RBIs.

This shouldn't come to any surprise to the Texas Rangers.

Cabrera looks to continue to feast on Rangers pitching as the Tigers, in the midst of their longest road trip of the season, open a four-game series in Texas on Friday night.

After opening the 11-game trip by dropping two of three in Seattle, Detroit (9-7) won the final two contests in Los Angeles to split a four-game set there. In Thursday's 5-4 win over the Angels, Cabrera drove in his league-leading 19th RBI, while Carlos Guillen knocked in two before leaving in the fifth inning with a strained left hamstring.

Cabrera is 8 for 21 with two homers, five doubles and eight RBIs during a five-game hitting streak, and will likely be asked to carry more of Detroit's offense with Guillen being placed on the 15-day disabled list. Guillen is batting .311 with a home run and eight RBIs in 61 at-bats.

"It hurts because he's swinging the bat really well," manager Jim Leyland said.

Cabrera shouldn't have much trouble generating extra offense in this series.

In nine games against the Rangers (6-9) last season, Cabrera batted .432 with two home runs, three doubles and 12 RBIs, leading the Tigers to seven victories. Since being acquired by Detroit in 2008, the four-time All-Star has 24 RBIs in 18 games against Texas.

Cabrera hasn't done anything special against scheduled starter Scott Feldman (1-1, 4.41 ERA), going 2 for 5, but the Rangers right-hander has had plenty of other problems with Detroit's lineup.

Feldman is 0-1 with an 8.82 ERA in seven games - five starts - lifetime against the Tigers. In his only outing against them last season, he was tagged for six runs and 10 hits in 2 1-3 innings of a 13-5 loss.

Feldman, who led the Rangers with 17 wins in 2009, was also pulled with one out in the third against New York on Saturday. He gave up four runs and seven hits in a 7-3 loss.

The Rangers were swept by the Yankees and avoided another sweep by defeating Boston 3-0 on Thursday to snap a six-game skid.

"We've been on the verge of getting a win," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Now the monkey's off our back, and we can just play."

To string some wins together, though, the Rangers need to be more productive on offense.

They've scored three runs or fewer in five of seven games, and other than Nelson Cruz, who has seven of the team's 11 homers, the rest of the lineup hasn't done much.

Texas looks to break out of this funk against Max Scherzer (1-1, 2.12), who is trying to build on his first win with the Rangers.

After giving up five runs and nine hits in five innings of a 10-5 loss to Kansas City on April 12, Scherzer allowed two runs and scattered six hits in six innings in Sunday's 4-2 win over Seattle.

"I need to be that high intensity every time I go out there," the right-hander said. "That's the way I'm wired, that's the way I pitch."

Scherzer seemed to have that level of intensity against the Rangers on June 23, allowing two runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts in six innings of an 8-2 win for Arizona.