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Tigers-Rangers Preview

Apr 25, 2010 - 5:25 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Detroit (9-8) at Texas (7-9), 3:05 p.m. EDT

While nobody seems too worried about Rick Porcello's struggles so far, a strong performance from the 21-year-old right-hander would make the Detroit Tigers feel much better.

Porcello gets the ball Sunday in Arlington, Texas, where he'll look to bounce back from two poor outings in his first career appearance against the Rangers.

Just two years out of high school, Porcello earned a spot in the Tigers' rotation last spring and finished the season 14-9 with a 3.96 ERA. His major league career, though, got off to a rough four-game start at 1-3 with a 6.23 ERA.

Porcello (1-1, 6.46 ERA) finds himself in a similar position in 2010. He has not reached the seventh inning in any of his three starts, and opponents are hitting .359 against him.

"He wants to get back to what he was doing before," Tigers bullpen coach Jeff Jones told MLB.com Wednesday. "And he will. None of us are worried."

After giving up a career-high 10 hits against Kansas City on April 14, Porcello thought he had relatively good stuff in Tuesday's 6-5 loss at the Los Angeles Angels.

"It was just a couple of pitches that came back and bit me hard and ended up costing me a lot of runs," he said after surrendering six runs and eight hits in a season-low 4 1/3 innings.

Porcello is just 1-5 with a 5.62 ERA in his last 10 starts away from Detroit, but that could improve if the Tigers (10-8) continue hitting the ball at their current pace.

Detroit has reached double digits in hits in its last three games and batting .302 during this stretch after tagging Texas (7-10) for 11 hits in Saturday's 8-4 victory.

First-year Tiger Johnny Damon extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a two-run double while Miguel Cabrera improved his batting average to .361 with two doubles in four at-bats. Cabrera leads the major leagues with 22 RBIs and will face Colby Lewis (2-0, 3.12) for the first time.

The 30-year-old right-hander was targeting his third straight victory Tuesday, but the Rangers' bullpen allowed four runs in a 7-6 loss at Boston. Lewis struck out five while giving up three runs and five hits in five innings. Opponents are batting .206 against him.

"I just wanted to pick up where I left off last year in Japan," Lewis told MLB.com "Just have quality starts and keeping my team in the ballgame. This is exactly what I wanted to do coming back (after being gone for two seasons)."

Lewis, who had no record with a 3.00 ERA in two games for Detroit in 2006, makes his first career start against the Tigers. He pitched one inning of scoreless relief against them Sept. 2, 2007.

Vladimir Guerrero tied a season high with three RBIs on Saturday and lifted his average to a team-best .371 with three hits. He is the only current Ranger to have faced Porcello, going 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.

Tigers shortstop Adam Everett is questionable after straining his right hamstring Saturday.

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, who had the game-winning hit in Friday's 5-4 series-opening win, is 6 for 8 with runners in scoring position after an RBI single Saturday.