The Detroit Tigers have been wallowing around the bottom of the American League. A big part of that has been the continued struggles for Jack Flaherty.

The veteran right-hander, who will start the series finale against the visiting Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, hasn’t recorded a victory this year. Detroit lost the last seven games that Flaherty has started, most recently when he survived just 3 1/3 innings at Baltimore on Friday.

Flaherty (0-6, 5.94 ERA) gave up six runs and eight hits on that dreary night, though only half of the runs were earned. Pete Alonso and Jackson Holliday homered off him.

“There’s a handful of fastballs that are probably over the middle of the plate that when I go back and look at it, (I) will see that,” Flaherty said.

Over his past six starts, Flaherty has surrendered 22 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings (8.37 ERA) while losing five times.

“Jack is always a competitor and he’s always trying to find a way,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, he’s searching for the consistency that he’s had before in his career and will have again.

“This is taking a toll on him. It’s taking a toll on all of us. Not just Jack’s performance, just the overall way things have gone. But we’ll get back to work and Jack will get back to work to find solutions.”

The Angels have traditionally been rough on Flaherty as well. He has lost all three career starts against them while giving up 20 runs, 19 earned, in 13 2/3 innings (12.51 ERA).

Flaherty’s mound opponent, Los Angeles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, has made two starts since recovering from right shoulder inflammation that kept him out for the season’s first seven weeks. Rodriguez (1-1, 10.61 ERA) gave up seven runs and seven hits while walking four in 3 2/3 innings in his Angels debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 17.

He allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings against the Texas Rangers on Friday and picked up the victory as the Angels prevailed 9-6.

“Definitely took a step in the right direction,” Rodriguez said. “Still a lot of things to work on, though. Felt like I was fighting my delivery at times.”

Rodriguez cut down his walk total to two free passes.

“I don’t even want to look at the first-pitch strikes,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t even want to look at that stat. I know that needs to be better, but we’re headed in the right direction.”

Rodriguez was acquired from Baltimore in a November deal that sent outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles. The Angels are hoping that Rodriguez will emerge as one of their top starters. He has pitched 10 scoreless innings and struck out 15 while going 1-0 in two career starts against the Tigers.

Detroit got a much-needed 4-0 victory in the middle game of the three-game series on Wednesday, but it came with a cost.

Starting pitcher Casey Mize was removed after the fourth inning due to right groin tightness. Closer Kenley Jansen couldn’t finish the game after an awkward landing while delivering a pitch. Both sustained right groin injuries, but the extent of both was unclear right after the game, Hinch said.

The Tigers won for just the second time in 11 games, while the Angels had their season-best four-game winning streak snapped.

–Field Level Media

Chicago White Sox ace Davis Martin admits, “I don’t like talking about myself.”

The Minnesota Twins can relate.

After absorbing a 15-2 defeat on Wednesday, the visiting Twins will aim to move on against Martin on Thursday afternoon as they try to split the four-game series.

“There’s not much we did well (Wednesday) overall,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said.

The White Sox walloped the Twins behind a season-best 18 hits. Sam Antonacci and Randal Grichuk contributed three apiece, while Chase Meidroth, Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery, Edgar Quero and Tristan Peters each added two.

“It was awesome,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Up and down the lineup, really stringing together quality at-bats. … We just had really good at-bats that we were able to get hard contact, really, throughout the lineup.

Meidroth has recorded multiple hits in each of the first three games of the series, and he connected for a grand slam on Wednesday.

Murakami, meanwhile, has homered in each contest to stretch his total to 20, tied for the American League lead. He is the third White Sox player in club history to reach that mark before June.

“He’s just been consistently doing a lot of damage, obviously,” Venable said. “Every day, you see quality at-bats. If it’s not homers, it’s pitches he took the other way, like today. Drawing walks. So he just continues to stay in good spots. He’s stacking really productive days.”

Minnesota also relied on the long ball Wednesday but little else. Two of the club’s three hits were solo shots, with Byron Buxton and Kody Clemens providing the power. Chicago’s David Sandlin, making his major league debut, retired 18 straight after Buxton’s leadoff home run.

A Gold Glove center fielder, Buxton has started three straight games and six of his past seven at designated hitter as he deals with a sore right hip that triggers pain when he stops.

“We’re working on that brake system,” Buxton said. “It’s good though. Every day it’s progressing, feeling better. Keep going day by day and go from there. Obviously it’s May so I don’t want to do something stupid, which is hard. They’re keeping me contained.”

Chicago has won eight of nine against Minnesota dating to last season.

Martin (7-1, 2.04 ERA) will get the call as the White Sox try to win their fifth straight home series. The right-hander is searching for his third straight winning start and his sixth consecutive winning decision.

Strong run support helped Martin win a road game against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, when he spaced four runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked two against seven strikeouts.

Martin is 2-3 with a 6.15 ERA in six appearances (five starts) vs. the Twins.

The Twins moved Taj Bradley’s turn in the rotation back one day and will give the ball to rookie left-hander Kendry Rojas (1-0, 1.26).

Rojas has made just one start among his five appearances, when he worked four shutout innings against the Houston Astros on May 18. He contributed three shutout innings of relief against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, permitting one hit and one walk while striking out three.

The 23-year-old Cuba native will be opposing the White Sox for the first time.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Red Sox will attempt to earn their first back-to-back home victories since early April when they wrap up a three-game series against the visiting Atlanta Braves on Thursday.

After Atlanta won the series opener 7-6 Tuesday, Boston ended a five-game home losing streak with an 8-0 victory on Wednesday. The Red Sox took control with a six-run fourth inning.

The last time Boston posted consecutive victories at Fenway Park was April 7-8 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Red Sox also won their next home game, on April 17 vs. the Detroit Tigers, but they are 5-15 at home ever since.

The 15 hits Boston collected on Wednesday was the team’s highest total at Fenway Park this season.

“It was really good — and needed,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “I actually thought we took some good at-bats in the first three innings, but to capitalize in the fourth over and over again and just keep building was really good.

“Singles work when you stack them. That has been, at times, the problem. We can look up and get eight or nine hits, but we don’t stack them. We stacked them (Wednesday), and that’s usually what equals big crooked-number innings.”

Jarren Duran has hit a solo home run in each of the first two games in the series, and he had four hits on Wednesday. The Boston leadoff man has homered in back-to-back games three times this season, all in May.

Ceddanne Rafaela, who socked a solo shot on Tuesday, went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the Wednesday win.

“Overall, (Rafaela’s) swing decisions at the plate, for the most part, are as good as I’ve seen,” Tracy said. “He’s just being more particular about what he’s swinging at. When he gets a good pitch to hit, he’s hitting it hard, so he’s swinging the bat very well.”

Atlanta was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base Wednesday. It was the fifth time the Braves were shut out this season. Atlanta committed three errors in the defeat, two in Boston’s six-run fourth.

“Turn the page on this one,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “Game got away from us in the fourth inning there. We didn’t really take care of the ball.

“Hard to tell location from the dugout, but probably a lot of the pitches (from starter Bryce Elder) were on the plate. It was a lot of singles for a while, but they put ’em together and then we didn’t take care of the ball and the fourth got away from us.”

The Red Sox will send left-hander Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.49 ERA) to the mound Thursday afternoon with the hope of winning the decisive game in the series. Tolle won his lone career appearance against the Braves on May 16. He pitched a career-high eight innings and yielded four hits and two runs as Boston prevailed 3-2 at Atlanta.

Tolle is coming off a no-decision against the Minnesota Twins on Friday, when he tossed six innings of three-run ball.

Atlanta left-hander Chris Sale (7-3, 1.89) is scheduled to start against his former team. He played for the Red Sox from 2017-23, helping the club win the 2018 World Series. Sale is 4-1 with a 1.89 ERA in 12 career appearances (seven starts) against Boston.

The 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner is in fine form again this year. He has allowed one run or fewer in eight of his 10 starts. Most recently, he fired seven innings of one-run ball to beat the Miami Marlins on May 20.

–Field Level Media