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#Orioles 5/31 lineup vs Tigers: McLouth 7, Machado 5, Markakis 9, Jones 8, Davis 3, Wieters 2, Hardy 6, Dickerson dh, Flaherty 4, Gonzalez 1
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) May 31, 2013
That's Chris Dickerson, designated hitter. Heck, why not? Dickerson has only faced Tigers starter Max Scherzer three times, so his 0-3 with two strikeouts probably doesn't matter any.
J.J. Hardy has seen the most of Scherzer, with a .167/.167/.389 in 19 plate appearances. Nick Markakis (13 PA) and Adam Jones (12) both have an OPS over 1.000 against Scherzer.
As usual, these are probably not very instructive numbers. Last year, Scherzer took his strikeouts to a new level and that's continued this year. What matters is how tonight's Orioles do against his arsenal, and well... nobody knows.
#Tigers lineup: Infante 4, Dirks 7, Cabrera 5, Fielder 3, Martinez DH, Peralta 6, Avila 2, Garcia 8, Kelly 9. Scherzer is starting.
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 31, 2013
None of the Tigers hitters have more than three plate appearances against Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez.
Miguel Cabrera is a very bad man, and he is bad (in a good way for him, which means bad for the Orioles) when facing right-handed pitchers: a .355/.430/.621 slash line against righties. He is right-handed and actually hits lefties even better.
Chris Davis could be all that stands between Cabrera and a second consecutive Triple Crown. Sure, it's just the end of May and it's early to make those proclamations. But Cabrera is four home runs behind and he'll be looking to start catching up tonight. 11 of his 15 home runs have been against right-handed pitchers.
Don Kelly is 1-2 with a double off Gonzalez. I mention this because I follow a couple of Tigers fans on Twitter who sarcastically use the hashtag #donkellyplayerofthegame, which hopefully does not need to be used unironically tonight.