Roki Sasaki's blister has thinned the Dodgers' rotation depth at a bad time, and the bullpen still has multiple arms rehabbing rather than pitching. Detroit's issues run deeper — Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and Matt Vierling are all out of the lineup, and Jack Flaherty is throwing bullpens instead of innings. Both sides are shorthanded; only one of them is also chasing the standings.
That's the real story in Detroit right now. The Tigers were running away with a playoff spot a couple weeks ago and have since cratered, and manager AJ Hinch has been fielding questions about a season that's slipping away almost as fast as it came together. Whatever's left of that push will look different by the time first pitch rolls around Sunday, since Detroit hosts LA twice — Friday and Saturday — before this game, and either club's health, bullpen usage or standing could look completely different by the finale.
The Dodgers, for their part, aren't cruising either. They took care of business against a bad Pittsburgh team, then dropped both ends of a set in Atlanta — proof this roster can still be had, blister-thinned rotation or not. Whichever version of each team shows up for the finale, this one closes out a stretch that will have told both clubs a lot about themselves.
First pitch at Comerica Park is 1:40 PM ET on Sunday, August 30 — the last of a set that could mean very different things for either club depending on how the first two games go. For a Detroit team searching for any signal it's not cooked, and a Los Angeles team trying to get its full rotation back together, there's plenty on the table before anyone even looks at a scoreboard.