Sunday Night Baseball: Tigers vs. Rangers
The Detroit Tigers get another crack on ESPN Sunday Night baseball against the Texas Rangers and it just so happens that this Tigers vs. Rangers game has a phenomenal pitching matchup. We’ll get treated to Tarik Skubal in front of a national audience once again. We were supposed to get Nathan Eovaldi for the Rangers, but he’s been scratched with back tightness, so Jacob Latz will get the call instead.
With Latz on the bump, the Tigers are now substantial favorites as opposed to just being favored by a little bit like they would have been with Eovaldi on the bump.
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How to Watch Tigers vs. Rangers
Where: ESPN
When: Sunday July 20, 7:10 p.m. ET
Tigers vs. Rangers MLB Odds
Detroit Tigers -206 // Texas Rangers +167
Total: 7 (-109/-111)
Tigers vs. Rangers Game Preview
This will be Skubal’s first start since getting the ball to open up the 2025 All-Star Game. Well, technically, he pitched the bottom of the first, as the NL was at home in Atlanta, but he actually struggled with two runs on three hits in his one inning of work. Skubal did strike out two batters. Over 19 regular season starts, he’s only allowed more than two runs in six of them, so it would’ve been one of his lesser starts in all likelihood.
Skubal actually struggled in his final first half start, surrendering four runs on four hits to the Mariners over five innings of work. That was on the heels of 14 shutout innings with 23 strikeouts in his two previous starts, including one on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball against the Twins.
While Skubal’s ASG appearance wasn’t great and neither was his last start of the first half, he has a 2.23 ERA with a 2.02 FIP and is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young. He would be the first repeat winner in the AL since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000. Randy Johnson won four in a row in the NL from 1999-2002.
The Tigers are a top-10 offense on the road this season, so they’ve definitely fared well there. They’ve also been in or around the top five against lefties most of the season – so another positive for them in this one, but they are not hitting well of late. The Rangers offense has had some difficulties on the whole and rank near the bottom five in wOBA overall and easily in the bottom five against lefties.
This essentially becomes a Johnny Wholestaff type of game for the Rangers, as Latz has made a couple of starts out of his 21 appearances. He did go six innings in his June 24 start against the Orioles and has worked at least three innings in each of his last three appearances. He also has a relief outing of 5.2 innings of work within the last few weeks. So, he may be able to provide some length, especially not having pitched in nine days, but the Rangers probably won’t push the southpaw too far.
While the pitching matchup obviously favors the Motor City Kitties, they are on a six-game skid and the Rangers have taken the first two in this series. Detroit was even no-hit by Kumar Rocker into the sixth inning last night, so they are definitely coming back to earth a bit right now. To me, the +1.5 on the Rangers at -102 is worth it in a game with a low-scoring expectation and a Tigers team that is having some difficulty with the bats at present.
Overnight money on the Tigers gave us a better price on this, as a lot of bettors will take Skubal at any price or work him into their moneyline parlays.
Pick: Rangers +1.5 (-102)
Tigers vs. Rangers Player Props
Gleyber Torres (-125) More Hits Than Corey Seager
This is located under H2H Player Props on DraftKings. Seager is only batting .225 against lefties this season and draws a very tough assignment with Skubal today. Torres is batting .288 against lefties and has a much easier draw with Latz. The only downside to this play is that Torres has a 17.6% BB% in 91 PA against lefties, but that also shows he has the chance to get into a favorable count or two.
