Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins – MLB, September 23, 2020

The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins will close down their regular-season series Wednesday night with the second contest of a two-game set at Target Field in Minneapolis.

We have seen some huge upsets over the first eight encounters of the season between these two AL Central foes. Each team has been victorious four times, although the Twins have been listed as firm favorites every single time.

Hereof, Wednesday’s closer should bring more thrilling action, so let’s take a look at the latest odds update and all the key betting tips and trends along with my best Tigers vs. Twins betting pick.

Ahead of the opening contest of this series Tuesday, the Tigers were five games behind the bottom wild card in the American League which means they will miss the playoffs for the sixth straight year.

On the other side, the Twins are battling for the AL Central title. They were 33-22 on Tuesday, just 1.5 games behind the White Sox, and 2.5 games ahead of the Indians.

The Twins desperately need a win here. On paper, they are a much better team than Detroit, so I’m not surprised by the odds at all.

The Tigers will start rookie Casey Mize, and the 23-year-old righty has struggled in each of his six starts thus far. Mize owns a poor 6.08 ERA and 1.48 WHIP and is 0-2 on the season.

Casey met the Twins twice and surrendered five earned runs on seven hits across seven innings. However, the Tigers won both his starts against Minnesota (3-2 and 10-8).

Kenta Maeda will take the mound for the Twins, and the 32-year-old right-hander is 5-1 with a 2.52 ERA and 0.76 WHIP in 10 starts this year. Maeda is 0-1 in a couple of starts against the Tigers this season, yielding six earned runs on eight hits across 12 frames.

Since his last meeting with the Tigers, Kenta has allowed only a pair of runs on nine hits through 12 innings of work.

The Twins have been struggling offensively since an Opening Day. They are averaging only 4.45 runs per game, enough for the 19^th-most in the majors and way below the league average of 4.64 runs scored per contest.

On the other side, the Tigers are tallying 4.33 runs per game (22^nd). They’ve had a lot of ups and downs this season, but their offense fell apart when it mattered the most. Since the first day of September, Detroit has dropped 14 of its 19 games overall.

The Tigers entered this series with four losses over their previous five outings. They’ve scored just 12 runs in that stretch while surrendering 24 in a return. Detroit’s playoff hopes are already dead, so I’m backing the Twins to satisfy the odds and win this clash by two or more runs.

Despite all their woes at-bat, the Twins have some top-notch sluggers in their lineup, and I expect them to hit hard and often when they face off against rookie starter for the third time on the season.