Oddsmakers have opened the betting line for this contest with the Orioles as a solid $1.40 favorite. This is only the second time in five games this season that Baltimore will enter as the betting favorite. They won the other, beating these Tigers 5-1 in the home opener on Monday. That being said, the club is only 9-16 as a home favorite of -125 to -175 the last three seasons.

After Orioles pitching had combined to allow just four runs total in the first four games, they got shelled for seven runs last night as starter Brad Bergesen was unable to last past the fourth inning. Previously, Baltimore starters had allowed just two earned runs over 26 innings.

Tonight, O’s manager Buck Showalter will give the baseball back to Chris Tillman, who was outstanding in his first outing of the season. Tillman allowed no hits over six innings of work last Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, but was denied the no-no when he was pulled due to a pitch count that had reached 101. While Tillman was just 2-5 with a 5.87 ERA in 11 big league starts last season, he did fare well against Detroit with a 2-0 team start record and 1.32 ERA. As a team, Detroit hit just .091 against him in the two games.

Even with last night’s win, the Tigers are just 22-41 on the road vs. right handed starters since the start of last season.

The Tigers will counter with Brad Penny, who was terrible in his first start of the season, which also came last Saturday vs. the New York Yankees. Penny allowed three runs in each of the first two innings and was pulled after only 4.3 innings of work having allowed eight runs on seven hits and four walks.