The Tigers face the Twins in Minnesota! Our MLB odds series has our Tigers Twins prediction, odds, and pick for Friday.

The Tigers have opened the season playing well with a 10-8 record. The offense has not shown up so far, but instead, the pitching has been one of the best in the entire MLB. The offense has been close to lifeless and ranks near dead last in the league in batting average. There is a massive discrepancy between their bats and their play on the mound. Riley Greene, Mark Canha, and Gio Urshela have been able to stand out in a bad offense up to this point in the season. By contrast, the pitching currently ranks top three in the league in terms of team ERA. Their ace has been Tarik Skubal who has been nothing short of dominant for them so far to start the season, but they lost in his last time out, and then Casey Mize and Reese Olson have also been solid behind him. The Tigers' pitching will be a massive key in this game.

The Twins have struggled out of the gate with a 6-11 record. They also enter this game on a current four-game losing streak. The Twins have been the worst offense in the MLB up to this point, while their pitching has not been great, either, but still better than their bats. Alex Kirilloff, Edouard Julien, and Ryan Jeffers are the three notable names on this Minnesota offense even with how much they have struggled to start the season. On the mound, Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan are the names to watch as well and are the best part of this team with how much this team has struggled on offense. This needs to be a pitching duel and Minnesota will need to prove if they can make it happen.

Here are the MLB Odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

MLB Odds: Tigers-Twins Odds

Detroit Tigers: +1.5 (-178)

Moneyline: +120

Minnesota Twins: -1.5 (+146)

Moneyline: -142

Over: 7.5 (-122)

Under: 7.5 (+100)

How to Watch Tigers vs. Twins

Time: 8:10 pm ET/ 5:10 pm PT

TV: Bally Sports Detroit/Bally Sports North

Stream: fuboTV (Click for free trial)

Why The Tigers Will Cover The Spread/Win

The Tigers are putting Jack Flaherty on the mound where he has an 0-1 record, a 4.91 ERA, and a 1.20 WHIP. Through 18.1 innings, Flaherty has allowed 19 hits, three walks, and three home runs. He also has 20 strikeouts on the year. The Tigers are 2-1 in the three games that he's appeared in this season. In his last start, he gave up six hits and three runs with two walks and eight strikeouts. Last season, Flaherty struggled to a 1-3 record, a 6.75 ERA, and 1.67 WHIP on the Orioles. He has a good matchup to get right against a Twins team that has struggled so much behind the plate.

The offense for the Tigers has struggled this season. The Tigers are 27th in the MLB in team batting average at .213 after having a team batting average of .236 last season where they finished 27th in the MLB, so not much has changed from year to year. Mark Canha, Riley Greene, and Gio Urshela are the notables that make noise on this offense. Canha has the most home runs at three and the most RBI at eight, while Riley Greene leads the way at OBP at .372. Gio Urshela rounds this out by leading in batting average at .294 and then in total hits at 15. They get a chance to get right against a struggling Twins pitching staff.

Why The Twins Will Cover The Spread/Win

The Twins are putting Joe Ryan on the mound where he has an 0-1 record, a 2.60 ERA, and a 0.92 WHIP. Through 17.1 innings, Ryan has allowed 14 hits, two home runs, and two walks with a total of 24 strikeouts. The Twins are 2-1 in the three games that he's appeared in this season. In his last start, he threw six innings, allowing three runs on six hits with one walk and 12 strikeouts  Last season, Ryan was decent with an 11-10 record, a 4.51 ERA, and 1.17 WHIP. Ryan has a great opportunity in this game against a struggling Detroit offense.

The offense for the Twins has struggled to start this season. The Twins are dead last in the MLB in team-batting average at .193 after having a team-batting average of .243 last season where they finished 21st in the league. Alex Kirilloff, Edouard Julien, and Ryan Jeffers lead the way for the Twins in most of the batting categories. Kirilloff leads the team in batting average at .288 and in total hits at 15. Jeffers leads in RBI at 11 and in OBP at .351 and then Julien leads in home runs at four. They have a tough matchup against the Tigers' pitching staff.

Final Tigers-Twins Prediction & Pick

This is going to be a pitching-based game because of the fact that neither team has shown much on offense. The Twins have the better pitcher in this matchup in Joe Ryan when compared to Jack Flaherty, but the Tigers are the more talented team overall. It also helps this game in Minnesota too. Ryan should shut down the Tigers on offense, while the Twins should show some signs of life behind the plate against Jack Flaherty. Expect this to be a very tight game where the Tigers cover, but the Twins should break their four-game losing streak because of the struggles of Jack Flaherty and win a very close game.

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Final Tigers-Twins Prediction & Pick: Tigers +1.5 (-178)