Can Tigers' Cy Young trio negate Orioles' power?

If the Orioles are intimidated by what Adam Jones called the Tigers' "three-headed monster," they're not saying it.

Truth be told, they shouldn't be.

Welcome to a somewhat odd American League Division Series, odd in that the team that ran away with its division is a slight underdog to a team most thought underperformed, especially in the season's second half.

The Orioles finished 96-66, 12 games clear of the second-place Yankees in the AL East. The Tigers, though finishing 90-72 in edging the Royals by one game for the Central crown, are the favorite because of their star power, led by a pitching staff featuring the last three AL Cy Young Award winners.

Those three are slated to start the first three games of this ALDS, starting with Max Scherzer, who won last season's award and went 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA in Game 1; followed by Justin Verlander, the 2011 winner who had a down year, going 15-12, 4.54; and 2012 winner David Price (15-12, 3.26) in Game 3.

"You talk about some bulldogs, these guys are bulldogs, they're made for this," Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter said. "I like my chances but like I said, what you do during the season has nothing to do with the postseason."

The Orioles have an aggressive lineup that led the AL in homers with 211, an approach Jones said needs to continue.

"They're strike throwers," Jones said. "We have to use our aggressiveness. If they're throwing strikes down the middle, we're going to be hacking."

Said Scherzer: "A team that swings the bat like that, they're dangerous. They're dangerous one through nine."

The Tigers went 5-1 against the Orioles this season but that seems irrelevant. The clubs last played May 14 and both are dramatically different.

Detroit was among baseball's best in the first half, going 53-38 but was a step above mediocre the second half, going 37-34, never taking off as expected after dealing for Price at the trade deadline.

Conversely, the Orioles didn't jump out of the gate. They were just 20-18 after the Tigers completed a three-game sweep May 14, but as the summer approached a superior back end of the bullpen began to take shape, with Andrew Miller and Darren O'Day setting up closer Zach Britton, who was 37-for-41 in saves.

After a 52-42 first half, Baltimore went 44-24 in the second.

If the Tigers have a clear advantage in the starting pitching department, the Orioles have one when it comes to the pen.

"When we came into Baltimore, we were hot, and after we left Baltimore, really, Baltimore was hot pretty much the rest of the way," Tigers first-year manager Brad Ausmus said. "They [had] the second- best record in the American League and I think they're probably a lot more of a confident team than they were when we last saw them."

The Orioles lost some of their star power in the second half, first in late August when third baseman Manny Machado was lost to a knee injury, and then in mid-September when Chris Davis was lost to a 25-game suspension for testing positive for amphetamines.

"We feel good as a team," Jones said. "We were supposed to finish in last place so [being underdogs] is fine with us."