Time: 07:10 P.M. EST Venue: Comerica Park
DETROIT -- He doesn't consider it a homecoming, but Rick Porcello is returning to pitch in his old home Friday night for the first time since being traded from Detroit to Boston. Porcello was signed by Detroit as their No. 1 draft choice in 2007 and made the Tigers out of spring training in 2009. At the end of the 2014 season, he was traded to Boston in a winter deal for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. He has faced Detroit once -- last year in Boston -- and allowed a run on five hits with six strikeouts over seven innings without getting a decision. Players almost religiously tell the media it's "just another game" or "no big deal" when facing a former employer. It's also generally regarded as nonsense." Seeing them in Boston earlier this year helped," Porcello said of pitching against Detroit for the first time in Comerica Park on Friday night. "And obviously last year pitching against them in Boston, then coming here kind of took care of feelings or whatever you want to call it." With the race that we're in, I'm really trying my hardest not to let any of that creep into my head. I want to maintain the focus I've had in my past three or four starts and not let anything alter that." I'm trying to kind of block it out, really. After Friday then obviously I can go over and say, 'Hi,' to those guys. But I'm not talking to them before Friday." Though it's been less than two seasons since he pitched for Detroit, Porcello should face at least three Tiger starters -- at short, third and in left -- who weren't on the team during his time there. Porcello (16-3, 3.30 ERA) is having one of the better seasons of any pitcher in baseball and is 9-1 with a 2.75 ERA over his last 11 starts. He'll be up against an equally formidable opponent in Detroit's rookie Michael Fulmer (10-3, 2.25 ERA), who at this time a year ago had just switched over from the New York Mets' Double-A team to Detroit's Double-A affiliate. The right-handed Fulmer was part of the trade that sent Cespedes from the Tigers to the Mets at last year's non-waiver trade deadline. Fulmer pitched at Fenway Park on July 27 without getting a decision, allowing three runs on seven hits. In his last start, the rookie recorded his first major league complete game and shutout, taming Texas on four hits and nine strikeouts. Fulmer is two of three key pitchers obtained for Detroit by Dave Dombrowski at the non-waiver trade deadline last year, a scant couple of days before he was fired by the Tigers and quickly found a new home as head of the Boston Red Sox. Dombrowski is going to see all three of the key pitchers he acquired for Detroit on consecutive days. Lefty Matt Boyd started against Boston on Thursday and gave up one run in six innings of a 4-3 Tigers' win in which he did not figure in the decision. Fulmer pitches Friday and lefty Daniel Norris goes Saturday. Norris and Boyd came from Toronto in the deal that sent lefty David Price to the Blue Jays, then subsequently signing with the Red Sox as a free agent.
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