The Reds host the Tigers on Friday night in Cincinnati to open a three-game series, with Framber Valdez facing Andrew Abbott in the first meeting of the set. The Tigers arrive at 14-12, but they have gone just 4-10 on the road, while the Reds are 16-9 and tied for first place in the NL Central.
Valdez, acquired by the Tigers in the offseason as a free agent from the Astros, has given them steady work through five outings. He is 2-1 with a 3.30 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP over 30 innings, and he has thrown four quality starts. That matters against a Cincinnati lineup that has seen him before: Nathan Lowe is 9-for-30 against Valdez, and Eugenio Suarez is 5-for-22.
Abbott has not been nearly as sharp. He is 0-2 with a 5.84 ERA and a 1.74 WHIP, and April was especially rough, when he allowed 16 earned runs in 18.2 innings across four starts. The Tigers have only eight total at-bats against him from two hitters and are 1-for-8 overall, a small sample that still gives Detroit a reason to believe the matchup favors its starter.
The Reds have been good enough to sit atop the division, but their home record has been ordinary at 6-6 and comes with a negative run differential in Cincinnati. That is part of what makes this opener interesting: one club has traveled poorly, the other has not fully translated its strong season into runs at home, and both are trying to set the tone in a three-game series that can shift a weekend quickly.
For the Tigers, the test is whether Valdez can hold up away from home and give them a chance to climb closer to the group of American League Central hopefuls. For the Reds, Abbott gets the ball with a chance to steady a rotation spot that has been under pressure and help a team that has been one of the bigger surprises in the league stay in control of the series from the start.