The Tigers, who are 31-28 on the road, are 5-4 against the Twins and 21-12 against AL Central teams. They won two of three from the Twins in their first trip to Minneapolis on April 11-13. ... The Tigers are in a stretch of 13 consecutive games against teams with a sub-.500 record.
OF Riley Greene is one of three MLB players with at least 26 doubles, 27 home runs and 87 RBI. Pete Alonso of the New York Mets and Taylor Ward of the Los Angeles Angels are the others. ... Skubal leads MLB in K/BB ratio (8.9) and WHIP (0.86) and leads the AL with a K rate of 33.8 percent. The 2024 AL Cy Young Award winner’s last loss to Twins was April 28, 2022. That was his third straight loss to the Twins. Since then Skubal, who is 5-3 in 13 career starts against the Twins, is 4-0 with a 1.22 ERA (five earned runs in 37 innings) in his last six starts against the Twins. Skubal is 36-10 in 69 starts since the beginning of the 2023 season.
Paddack is 1-1 with a 3.45 ERA in three starts for the Tigers since being traded by the Twins on July 28. The loss was against the Twins on Aug. 5 when he allowed four runs and six hits in four innings. ... Morton, who is in his 18th MLB season, is 0-2 for the Tigers since being traded by the Baltimore Orioles on July 31. In his debut for the Tigers on Aug. 3, he became just the fourth active pitcher to make 400 career starts, joining Justin Verlander (546), Max Scherzer (466) and Clayton Kershaw (443). Morton, 41, is 2-2 in six lifetime appearances against the Twins. Morton was the losing pitcher in Baltimore’s 5-2 loss at Target Field on May 7. His last victory over the Twins was in May 2019 while with Tampa Bay.
Sawyer Gipson-Long, who was in the Twins farm system from 2019-2022, was activated from the injured list on Wednesday and pitched two shutout innings in Chicago. Gipson-Long was activated on June 4 after recovering from Tommy John surgery, but returned to the injured list on July 2 because of neck stiffness. ... RHP Alex Cobb (hip inflammation), OF Matt Vierling (left oblique strain), OF Parker Meadows (right quad strain), RHP José Urquidy (Tommy John surgery), RHP Reese Olson (right should strain) and RHP Alex Lange (lat surgery) are out. Cobb, Urquidy and Lange are on rehab assignments. Olson hopes to pitch in the postseason.
The Twins (57-63) open a seven-game homestand by finishing their season series with the Tigers. They are coming off a 4-1 victory over the Yankees on Wednesday. The Yankees had won the first two games of the three-game series, outscoring the Twins 15-3.
