The Tigers and Twins have identical 86-76 records heading into Tuesday’s one-game tiebreaker to decide the AL Central title. Here are three things to know about the Tigers, one for each game they played since facing the Twins on Thursday:

1. Their leading MVP candidate, Miguel Cabrera, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.26, more than three times the legal limit, after an altercation with his wife in the wee hours Saturday morning, according to police, the Detroit Free Press reports. Cabrera had been partying with White Sox players after Friday night’s game at the Birmingham Townsend Hotel.

Cabrera is batting .323 with 33 home runs and 101 RBI for the season. But since Wednesday’s victory over the Twins, Cabrera is 1-for-15 with no RBI.

2. Offense has been the issue for the Tigers, and with Cabrera involved in this ordeal, it doesn’t help. The Tigers have scored just nine runs in four games since they put their foot on the Twins’ throats Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Twins were racking up 36 runs in that span. Detroit could have eliminated the Twins with a victory Thursday, but Scott Baker pitched five innings, as the Twins defeated the Tigers 8-3. Baker will start Tuesday tiebreaker for the Twins.

3. Rick Porcello, who will start Tuesday’s for the Tigers, wasn’t born when the Tigers won the 1987 AL East title. That was their last division championship. He is 20 years old but has been Detroit’s second-best starter to Justin Verlander down the stretch.

“He’s been young all year,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said, as printed in the Free Press. “I know one thing for a fact. He will not be scared.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.