Anibal Sanchez has been tough to score on in winning three interleague home starts with the Detroit Tigers.
His opponent is a pitcher who has a 3-12 record as a starter, with no wins in his last six.
Sanchez figures to have an edge over the Milwaukee Brewers' Jimmy Nelson in Tuesday night's matchup.
Detroit (23-16) seeks to even this three-game series behind Sanchez (3-4, 4.76 ERA), who has yielded one run in 22 innings in his interleague home starts with the Tigers. He matched a season high with nine strikeouts Thursday and gave up one run over eight innings in a 13-1 win over Minnesota.
The right-hander hasn't faced the Brewers with the Tigers, going 2-1 with a 5.30 ERA in seven starts against them during his career with Miami. The hitter he will be concerned about facing is Gerardo Parra, who is 8 for 14 against him including a 3-for-3 effort last year with Arizona.
Parra, batting .308, has been out of the starting lineup for the last two games and did not play in Monday's 3-2 victory.
The Tigers will get their first look at Nelson (1-4, 4.22), who is 0-4 with a 5.05 ERA in six outings since winning his season debut April 11 over Pittsburgh.
Nelson has dropped consecutive starts, yielding four runs in each of them. He lasted 6 2-3 innings in Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox. The right-hander has allowed five homers in his last 13 2-3 innings after surrendering one in his first 29.
He'll be up against a pair of Detroit batters enjoying nine-game hitting streaks. J.D. Martinez is hitting .406 during his streak while Jose Iglesias is at .333 in his run.
Miguel Cabrera is 10 for 24 during a six-game streak, though he bats .206 with one homer in night games compared to .452 with nine homers during the day.
Detroit has totaled three runs while going 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position in consecutive losses.
Victor Martinez, hitless in his last 13 at-bats and with a .216 average, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list as he struggles in his return from offseason knee surgery. Martinez came up limping after bouncing into a double play in the eighth inning Monday.
The team says he is dealing with left knee inflammation. Martinez had surgery in February after tearing the medial meniscus.
Milwaukee (14-25) captured Monday's opener behind Carlos Gomez, who led off with a home run and added a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning. Gomez was back in the lineup a day after being hit in the left earflap by a pitch from New York Mets rookie Noah Syndergaard on Sunday.
"He passed all the tests (Sunday)," manager Craig Counsell said. "As long as the doctor clears everything, and he felt fine, and he wanted to play, it was OK."
Adam Lind is expected to return to Counsell's starting lineup. Lind is hitting .217 in May after finishing April at .333.
