Good Fortune Smiles On Our Team AGAIN

And just in time ... 

One look at this at five in the afternoon, and you know they aren't going to play.

Delmon Young gets a seven game suspension, for calling a Jew a Jew in New York City (misdemeanor aggravated harassment, say the cops). An incident like this is unacceptable, we have responsibilities and standards, our game's status as a social institution, etc etc ... said Commissioner Allen H. "Bud" Selig, a Jew from Milwaukee. 

Soonest he can play is four days from today, at home against the White Sox, who don't have any Jewish players on their roster. 

Did Barry Bonds ever get suspended for telling the media he wanted to hit more home runs than "that fat white guy" (Babe Ruth)? No ...... 

What a Curious Baseball Game

Max Scherzer allowed seven hits and walked seven in four and two-thirds innings. The Tigers hung around, down only 3-1 when Scherzer left, after the Yankees stranded eleven runners.

Keep putting people on, and trouble will eventually find you. Luke Putkonen made his Show debut by getting Curtis Granderson to ground out with the bases loaded, but later walked two and gave up three hits. By then it was 6-2 and, the way the Tigers were (not) hitting, all you could do was think about tomorrow's game.

Scherzer's ERA at day's end reminds the baseball fan who also grew up with music radio of the frequency of legendary New York top 40, and former Yankee flagship, station WABC: 7.77.

----------------------------------------

Hinge has agreed to sign with the A's, and it will be weird to see him in a uniform without DETROIT or the Olde English "D" on it. Like it was when Babe Ruth took the field with BRAVES across his chest.

The signing will also mean that he'll have to pay for drinks from the Oakland clubhouse's soda machine. 

Drew And Fernando

Drew Smyly showed the Fox Saturday Game Of The Week audience that he belongs. Fernando Valverde showed them why he's running on reputation alone.

In six innings, Smyly allowed two hits and one run, a first inning homer by Nick Swisher, and earned his first major league win.

Andy Dirks, playing in place of Delmon Young, hit a three run homer and made two fine defensive plays in left field, on drives that would have had Delmon Young twisting in the wind. 

With the score 7-2 Tigers, in came Fernando to pitch the ninth. We know to never tune away when the game is in Fernando's hands. Despite a perfect 49 for 49 in save opportunities last season, Mariano Rivera he isn't.  

We got: home run (Swisher, his second of the game), fly out, walk (A-Rod), foul out (two outs, yeeeha!), they give A-Rod second, single (Granderson, A-Rod scores), they give Granderson second, Ibanez doubles him in. 32 pitches into the inning, now it's 7-5, Eric Chavez is the tying run, and Your Baseball Blogger wants to play Strangle The Closer.

One more biscuit for breakfast, and Chavez would have hit it out. Don Kelly went deep into the right field corner to grab his liner, and the 27th and often hardest out to record was in the books.

------------------------------------------------------

We got our wish again: Danny Worth is back, Hinge is gone, and we can put away the circus music that played whenever Delmon Young went after a fly ball.

Young will be examined by doctors on Monday, when the Tigers come home from this three game road trip, and could be cleared to play then. Or he might never play another game or the Tigers.

Maggie and I aren't rednecks, but we get called rednecks now and then, by well-meaning, ignorant, slightly drunk acquaintances. We apparently look and act the part. She lets it pass. I'm offended. I think "redneck" is the equivalent of the N word. But we don't have favored nation status, and it will never become "the R word."

Either no one should be called names, or everyone should be called names. As Maggie's liberal middle-aged girlfriends like to say: that's only fair, isn't it? 

--------------------------------

Four teams have expressed interest in Hinge. That is, four teams more desperate than the Tigers to field a lineup of nine major-league quality players. The Twins and A's, and the Orioles despite their 13-8 record, but also the Diamondbacks, last season's NL West champs.

The Late Late Scene In New York City

It sounds like the beginning of a dirty joke. “Four tourists, a panhandler wearing a yarmulke, and a baseball player were out in front of a hotel at 2:40 in the morning . . . “

But it’s real, on the front page of both Detroit newspapers, headlines on MLB.com. Delmon Young had gone out to sample the beat nightlife of New York City after checking in with his Tiger teammates at the Hilton on Sixth Avenue. He came back drunk, in the wee hours of this morning, there was a scuffle on the sidewalk, and he did the worst thing you can do in New York: called a Jew a Jew.

Young was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The cops are also talking hate crime, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are noticeable by their silence, and Young, this generation's John Rocker, isn’t playing tonight. (Where, actually, after the publicity, will he be able to play besides his home park?)

So they’re taking on the Yankees with 24 players. But one of them is Justin Verlander.

JV left after six with a 6-5 lead. Fernando Benoit gave up the tying run in the eighth. In the ninth, Fernando Villareal wild-pitched Curtis Granderson, the winning run, to third on ball four. He scored on a passed ball.

Everyone in the pen, unless they’re Dotel or Phil Coke, is named Fernando.

Csey Stengel said, of the 1962 Mets, losers 120 times in their first season, that they’ve found ways to lose games that haven’t been invented yet.

This one’s probably been invented already, but I never saw it before. 

End Of An Era

The Brandon Inge era in Detroit is over.

After this afternoon's 5-4 loss to the Mariners, the Tigers released the 34 year old Inge, former starting third baseman, one-time All-Star, now a utility man, the current senior Tiger who broke in twelve years ago as a backup catcher.

Not designated for assignment on his way to the minors and back to the Tigers, like last year. Released. Gone, just like that. (I got my wish again!) Toni Morrison will never have the opportunity to write a novel titled "How Brandon Inge Went To Toledo And Got His Groove Back."

Despite newspaper reports to the contrary, Your Baseball Blogger wonders if Inge asked for his release.

Designated would mean he'd stay in shape by playing every day at Toledo, or for someone else's Triple-A team until a big-league roster spot opened. Any team claiming him on waivers, or signing him to a minor league deal, would only have to pay him the major league minimum. The Tigers would cover the rest (5.5 million for 2012 and a 500K option for 2013).

And, after all, he loves the game. He could have collected his paychecks at home, but went to Toledo last year when no other team wanted him. Hang around, you never know what might happen, never know what other team might have a guy get hurt or go into a slump, and make the call. 

But even guys who love the game, unless they're Steve Carlton, know when it's time to go. Inge was hitting .100 -- 2 for 20 -- was less than sparkling in the field, and was lustily booed on opening day at Comerica. 

If he is through, he went 1 for 2 with a double in his last major league game, and that's not a bad way to go out.

 

Who ARE These Guys?

Ackley, Liddi, Saunders, Montero, Olivo, Wells . . .

Wells, we should know. Casper the Friendly Outfielder used to play for us. But the other names are familiar only to readers of box score agate and Fantasy League geeks.

These guys, who had been averaging three runs a game, who could go on “What’s My Line” in their uniforms and stump the panel, scored nine runs on fifteen hits tonight, and dispatched the Tigers as easily as one would an American Legion team.

All the Tiger Mystery Pitchers took a turn on the hill. Adam Wilk (six runs on eight hits in two innings), Thad Weber (three runs on seven hits in three innings) and Colin Balester (nothing in two innings, but by them it was too late).

Duane Below pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, has now gone twelve innings without allowing a run, and will start next Monday when the Tigers come home. KC Royals, look out: Below.

---------------------------

After this titanic struggle, the Tigers sent two Mystery Pitchers to Toledo and called up another. Wilk and Weber gone, Luke Putkonen up. Brayan Villarreal also returns, but he was up last season. 

Your Baseball Blogger also has this gut feeling; that, given the way they've been not hitting, that Hinge isn't making the trip to New York tomorrow night. 

Your Blogger Wants To Know

They got perfect gamed last Saturday. They're scoring three runs a game. The starting infield is Who, What, I Don't Know, and I Don't Give A Darn (he's the shortstop). So how did the Seattle Mariners marinate themselves seven runs tonight against the 2012 World Champion Tigers?

Umperors 1, Tigers 0

Another timeless and eternal baseball maxim was proved correct again today. 

You can't win 'em if you can't score 'em. 

Final: 3-2 Texas; the go-ahead and eventual winning run scoring in the 11th on a squeeze bunt that was really a foul ball missed by all four umperors. (That's strange ... they can hear players chirping in the dugout 60 feet away and identify them by name, but can't hear a foul ball whack off a guy's knee two feet in front of their faces.) 

So Drew Smyly has another no decision to go with his 1.13 ERA.

Hinge and Rugburn get booed every time they poke their heads out of the dugout. The Resident Managerial Genuis gets booed whenever he comes out to take the ball from yet another ineffective Tiger hurler. They're averaging four runs a game, which ain't gonna get it done in the American League. The 13-12 miracle win of two weeks ago, and the giddy euphoria it generated, have been forgotten, and the honeymoon is definitely over.

Radio Silence

Inside big-box stores, you can't hear the ball game. All that concrete and steel framework absorbs AM radio signals.

When I came out and heard that Duane Below was pitching, at two in the afternoon, I knew something unpleasant had happened, that deserved absorbing.

Unpleasantness indeed, in the form of an eight run Rangers first inning. Rick Porcello gave up all eight. A Josh Hamilton homer, a passel of singles and walks, a two-run triple by Ian Kinsler, and an error by Hinge at second that kept things going.

When the first three Rangers hitters in the second singled, and singled, and doubled, Porcello came out.

Duane Below pitched six scoreless innings in long relief. In ten innings this season, he hasn't allowed an earned run. (So when does he get a start?)

------------------------------------------------------

They're playing a day-night makeup doubleheader (all players must wear makeup) due to last night's rainout/windout/coldout.

What lousy weather, the out-of-towner might observe. (But at least the economy sucks and the people are nasty.) Doesn't the ball park have a roof?

No ... 

This afternoon's first pitch temperature was in the low 40s. The flags were sticking straight out. Just another balmy spring day in Motown. The Tigers' radio announcers tried to get the rest of us to believe that, for those sitting in the sun, it was actually a nice day.

Over forty-one thousand fans attended the game.

Freezing your ass off at a Tigers game is as much a Detroit rite of passage as becoming the victim of some random act of violence on one of your rare, ill-advised, trips south of Eight Mile. A tradition that evidently someone felt had to be preserved. (The unofficial city motto: Suffer, It's Good For You, It Builds Character.) Thus the lack of a ball park with a roof. They don't get it in Minneapolis either. Shame on you Minnesotans, for being just like Detroit. I thought you were smarter than that.

--------------------------------------

The Gas Man pitched the ninth and gave up the last three hits and single run (a homer by Mike Napoli, but by then it didn't matter), and, between games, was shipped to Toledo.

--------------------------------------

Game two: a 33 pitch hold by Fernando Ben-Wah, a 30 pitch save by Fernando Valverde. Single, single, walk, single, ball one, ball two, ball three ... had 'em all the way.

Perfect Game / HAHA RED SOX !!!

Phil Humber pitched a perfect game for the White Sox today, but it really should go into the record book with an asterisk because he did it against the Seattle Mariners.

In Fenway, the Red Sox were winning 9-1 after six but ended up losing 15-9. The Yankees scored seven in the seventh and seven more in the eighth. Before the miracle comeback, Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling on Yankees radio were speculating re what could still happen (anything, at Fenway), and mentioned another game in which the Yankees erased a big deficit to post a win, in 1950. Today's final had everyone talking about this game, but no one noted that it was the Red Sox' home opener. The Bombers were losing 9-0 after five and scored four in the sixth, nine in the eighth, and two in the ninth. No Yankee homered. The comeback was a collective effort. Everyone put the yeast in. And it was Billy Martin's first game in the major leagues.

Good Fortune Smiles On Our Team Again

The game's been called on account of rain!

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, some times ...  it rains. Think about it ... (Raye Anne, right? That's a pretty name. There's a great song by Motley Crue, do you know it? Raye Ann, she's a stay-ann ...")

Me Tarzan, Yu Darvish

The Rangers' ace du jour lived up to his advance billing, holding the Tigers to one run on two hits in six-plus innings.

The 10-3 loss proved to be a composite of everything that's wrong so far this season: 

The starting pitching after Verlander and Scherzer; with Doug Fister still out; specifically, the hazards of starting two rookies. In his second outing, Adam Wilk wasn't sharp. He was, in fact, just short of disastrous, lucky to be leaving after four innings and ten Rangers hits down only 3-1.

The second base situation. The three who share the position -- Hinge, Rugburn, and Ramon Santiago -- are hitting a total of 299. Total, not average. Hinge .100, Rugburn .081, Santiago .118.

Daniel Schlereth, The Gas Man, who has a category of awful all to himself. Tonight, with the Tigers down 5-1 after seven and the game still winnable -- anything, after all, is possible with Fielder and Cabrera lurking in the 3-4 spots -- he entered and allowed five runs. You could literally see the air go out of Comerica, as fans poured out of the place, off to their SUVs, freeway bound away from downtown Detroit to their safe suburbs.

The Big Man

When only a single was needed to tie the game, Prince Fielder came through.

He beat the shift with a soft liner to left, plating Miguel Cabrera with the go ahead run in a 4-3 win over the Royals, the series sweep completer.

He also stole a base, in the fourth. Looked like a gray blur motoring his way down to second. He didn't score, but you never know when blazing speed in the cleanup spot might be the key to a win.

Smyly Bests Chen

The young man from Arkansas, and the veteran Panamanian twelve years his senior, matched pitches through six innings, and both were mighty stingy with baserunners.

Ribbie singles by Fielder and Cabrera broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh. Octavio Dotel got the W, Fernando Valverde made things interesting (one-out walk, tying run up) before getting the last two, and everyone except the Royals' players and fans went home happy.

Smyly, author of two excellent starts, still doesn't have a win, but does have an ERA that reminds the fan of Hinge's batting average: 0.90.

How The Game Story Should Have Read

Justin Verlander's last pitch, his 131st of the night, was a 100 mph fastball burned past Alex Gordon for a called strike three.

It made Skipper Leyland really look like the resident managerial genius, for leaving him in after the Royals turned two scratch singles, a walk, and a hit batter into a run that narrowed the score to 3-2. Fernando Valverde was ready to come in, his presence in the pen -- seven hits in 4.2 innings to date -- possibly a greater incentive to let JV finish.

Verlander's dramatics eclipsed an excellent start by rookie Danny Duffy. Seven hits, three runs, seven strikeouts in six-plus innings for that rarest of major league players: one who has two first names, that start and end with the same letter, and contain the same number of letters. 

And -- oh, yes -- two of the Tigers' runs scored on a homer by Brandon Hinge.

The Honeymoon

It isn't over. The situation has, however, come to resemble the new bride and groom who, after six days of heavenly wedded bliss, can't agree on where to go for dinner.

They're starting two rookies. No starter has a win. No one's hitting. The regular second baseman has fallen off the Interstate and landed on the Bingo card (O-80). And Hinge is playing tomorrow.

This afternoon, Adam Wilk pitched well enough in his Show debut to win for any team that knows what baseball bats are for. Instead, he lost. He allowed two runs and three hits in five innings, striking out four. His teammates managed only three hits while he was in -- of the five they recorded -- off White Sox starter Gavin Floyd.

Five today, six hits yesterday; that isn't going to get it done in the American League, or anywhere unless Koufax and Drysdale are 1-2 in your rotation. 

Eight games into the season, things have taken a definite shape and form. This year's whipping boys have been identified. Hinge, Ryan Rugburn (owner of the .080 batting average), and Daniel Schlereth, the Gas Man in middle relief. Four innings, ERA an even nine.

--------------------------------------------

Foreshadowing, of who later this season might deliver the pinch hit, or the catch, that snuffs out a game-saving Tigers rally: Clete Thomas, waived to make room for Drew Smyly, has been claimed by the Twins.

The Key To The Batter's Box

You can't miss a game. If you do, you might see, or hear described, something you've never seen before.

In the first inning of today's game at US Cellular Field, Miguel Cabrera pointed out to the plate umpire that the batter's box was in the wrong place, and I've never seen or heard that happen.

It wasn't -- it was right where it's been for over a hundred years, next to the plate, but off-center, about eight inches too close to the mound. Hitters like to move up in the box and stand closer to the pitcher, but not against hard throwers like Jake Peavy.

The chalk lines were erased and redrawn, and Your Baseball Blogger wondered why the ump didn't notice.

Turns out it didn't matter. Twenty-five hitters struck out, fifteen of them White Sox. Max Scherzer allowed three runs and five hits in six innings, whiffed eleven, and took an undeserved loss. The Pale Hose needed two web gems, a diving catch by Dyan Viciedo with two on in the seventh and some Ramirez-Beckham piracy around the keystone in the eighth to come away with a 3-2 win.

After the game, the rumors we'd heard here in the second floor baseball bunker became official: Hinge was coming back. When someone comes, someone's got to go, and the guy without a chair in the game of musical roster spaces was Danny Worth.

This development, even though we saw it coming, didn't go over well. The Tigers are playing Hinge only because he's owed a lot of money and, since he isn't hitting his weight (190 lbs, .180 in rehab at Toledo), he'll go unclaimed again if he's waived and they'll have to eat his contract.

On a team that's far and away the best in its division, with three future Hall Of Famers on the squad (Cabrera, Fielder, Verlander), the buzz is over the part-time second baseman 29 teams passed on when he was cut loose last season.

Drew Smyly's Debut

The young southpaw from Little Rock, Arkansas walked the first hitter he faced in the major leagues, Desmond Jennings. Carlos Pena singled, and Evan Longoria walked. Jeff Keppinger, the villian in yesterday's ninth inning, came up. Smyly whiffed him, and retired Ben Zoebrist and Sean Rodriguez to get out of the jam.

Smyly went four, coming out after 90 pitches. He allowed four hits, struck out three, and earned a second start. 

The Tigers scored three in the fifth, and two each in the seventh and eighth. Alex Avila tripled, standing up, stole a base, and scored on a wild pitch, proving that it always helps to have speed in the catching position.

What Happened In The Ninth?

Justin Verlander allowed one hit and one walk through eight, and entered the ninth under 90 pitches, with a two run lead.

Jeff Keppinger, after freezing on the bench all day, pinch hit a single to open the inning. Your baseball blogger wondered if anyone was throwing in the pen. (Nope.)

After a groundout, Desmond Jennings singled Keppinger to third. YBB would have had someone warming up in the eighth, and brought him in now.

Carlos Pena walked, Evan Longoria grounded a single past Cabrera -- a ball that Hinge would have turned into two -- and Verlander came out with the score tied at two.

Papa Shut 'Em Down finally entered the game, and allowed both inherited runners to score. Keppinger, the leadoff pinch hitter, batted twice in the four run inning. In the press box, leads written before the ninth inning were quickly deleted, and new ones describing a loss that should have been a win were hurriedly composed.

"You could see he was fighting it out there," The Resident Managerial Genius said after the game. (Then why was he still out there?  YBB also wonders, if getting JV through the ninth was so vital, why he wasn't allowed to finish on opening day.)

No bottom of the ninth magic this day for the home nine, either. Fernando Rodney retired the heart of the batting order, Cabrera-Fielder-Peralta, game over. Too bad he didn't do that more often when he pitched for the Tigers.

It's A Team Game

And that's why Ryan Raburn got high fives for grounding out in the eighth inning this afternoon.

He advanced Prince Fielder to third and pinch runner Clete Thomas to second. Jhonny Peralta defied the Maddon Shift, three infielders on the left side, scoring Fielder with a sac fly. Gerald Laird, who wouldn't have come to bat had the Rays turned two, singled in Thomas. Final: 5-2 Tigers, now the league's only unbeaten team.

On Sunday, the miracle 12th inning rally started with little old singles by power guys Fielder and Cabrera, Fielder's hit defying the Valentine Shift, three infielders on the right side.

Little things win ball games and get you to the big October dance.

Big things, of course, also need to happen, and today Rick Porcello provided one Big Thing by allowing two runs in seven innings, outpitching Rays young star Matt Moore. 

Big Thing number two: a homer, single, and two walks from Austin Jackson, international leadoff hitter of mystery, The Man For You atop the batting order. He's hitting .563 over the first four games, and striking out but walking as often as he whiffs, four times each. 162 walks leading off, we'll take that, yeah baby!

It's All Happening

Tiger fans remember Opening Days, but more for the lousy weather than the final score.

Saturday's game was your basic garden-variety pummeling. No biggie, really.

But Sunday's 13-12 come from behind walkoff win in extra innings has become an instant classic; already on the all-time list of games Tiger fans remember and talk about, on there with division clinchers and no-hitters and almost-perfect games, and games in which Hinge actually does something to help the cause. 

Even before they signed Prince Fielder, the Tigers were by far the team to beat in the AL Central. Anything less than the division title would be a bad season.

The opening series sweep -- at home against the Red Sox -- and especially Sunday's dramatic win, has fans talking, awash in the magic that means the difference between an ordinary good year and The Year, as in 1968 and 1984, when everything went right. On Facebook, message boards, and sports talk radio, it's ALL happening. Your cynical baseball blogger, who's seen fifty openers -- the first admittedly when he was nine -- hasn't seen this after only three games in a long time. Fans are buzzing.

Have you seen a Tigers fan buzz?

Avila Wins It / HAHA RED SOX !!!

Wouldn't that be something if he hits it out? I asked Maggie.

You're delusional, she said.

Alex Avila was up, the Tigers were down 12-11 with two out in the 12th, and Prince Fielder was on. A brisk breeze was blowing out, as it had been all day. The Tigers scored four in the first, surrendered the lead, and came from three down to tie the score at seven. The Red Sox scored three, but Miguel Cabrera homered with two on in the ninth to tie the score at ten. Good and wonderful things had been happening all weekend at Comerica. So there was no doubt in my mind that he'd do it.

Sox closer by default Mark Melancon threw Avila a 2-2 curve, and he hit a high fly that barely made it into the stands. It still counted, and he rounded third and headed at home, having won the game, that brown-eyed handsome man!

I got my wish again!

You're haunted, Maggie said. And how do you know his eyes are brown?

I don't. Would Crash Davis let facts get in the way of a good blog post?

No, I don't think he would ... 

Max Scherzer allowed seven runs and was gone by the fourth inning. Doug Fister is on the DL and no one knows who will take his place in the rotation. Neither condition is cause for alarm, because it's early, and because we're 3-0 and New England's darlings, the self-imploding Red Sox -- Dustin Do-Right, Yoooo-kilis, the Ellsbury Doughboy, and Bobby Valentine, the Newt Gingrich of baseball managers -- have been broomed out of town.

I wish someone else would wash dishes, Maggie said. She wrapped the Easter ham in foil, and scooped potato salad into a Tupperware container.

I gathered plates and silver, and ran water in the sink. Crash also said that a player on a streak must respect the streak. You never know when one will happen again. If the Tigers keep winning, I'll wash dishes every night.

---------------------------------------

If the Yankees keep losing, we'll have Easter dinner every night, and for breakfast and lunch. The D-Rays completed a sweep by whitewashing the Bombers 3-0 in Florida. The last time both the Red Sox and Yankees started a season 0-3 was in 1966, when Mickey Mantle played outfield and "California Dreamin'" was Billboard's number one song.

Sold Out Game Two / Haha Red Sox !

44K at Comerica, first time they've ever sold out the second game of a season.

Well, that's nice ... pretty soon they'll sell out the whole season in advance like the Red Socks do, and the guy who on a Friday in July decides he'd like to see a game on Sunday can forget it.

Speaking of the Carmines ... Josh Beckett gave up five home runs, two each to Cabrera and Fielder, and one to Alex Avila as the double-time march to October continued, 10-0.

Cabrera also made a nice play at third, taking a hit away from Jarod Saltalamacchia, whose Italian surname translated means "jump over the bush," in the fifth inning. In the process nixing the theory that Tiger opponents, instead of going for the fences, should try to hit grounders to the infield.

Doug Fister had to come out in the fourth with an abdominal strain, but that's okay; it isn't serious, it's early, and every pitcher goes on the DL these days.

So buy your tickets now and, if you have an October wedding planned, you might want to change the date to something safe in November, after the World Series victory parade. 

The key guy to get them there could become not Fielder, Miggy, or JV, but Octavio Dotel.

The veteran right-hander, when he came in to pitch the seventh, entered his name in a box score for team number thirteen; another new league record. He allowed one hit and struck out three in one and a third innings, in the set-up role where Tiger hurlers wobbled more than a few times last season. The Tigers needed a guy with experience to get games to Papa Shut 'Em Down, and now they have him.

The Off Day After

Another good thing from yesterday's win: not once, from pre-game shows to post-game wrapup, was You Know Who's name mentioned.

He did get into a newspaper sidebar: A Tigers beat writer mentioned that Drew Smyly, the fifth starter who won't be needed for a couple weeks, watched the game "from Brandon Inge's suite" at Comerica.

Inge's suite at Comerica, I thought, was the bench.

Opening Day 2012 / Haha Red Sox !

In the Tigers' 2012 home opener, both Justin Verlander and the Red Sox picked up where they left off last season.

JV pitched eight scoreless innings and allowed two hits. Then, the opening day overflow crowd of 45,000 saw something that never happened all last season: Jose Valverde blow a save opportunity. The Sox got two in a mini rally punctuated by Kevin Yoooo-kilis' triple, and tied the score.

But that's okay, because the Sox bullpen imploded, like it did in game 162 last October. With one out, Peralta and Avila singled, and Ramon Santiago was hit by a pitch. Austin Jackson's single plated pinch runner Danny Worth with the winner. Austin Jackson, he's still the man! He tripled and singled twice batting leadoff, scored a run and drove in one, and avoided the strikeout bugaboo that cost him a lot of productive ABs in 2011.

Some fans and at least one beat writer thought JV should have finished the game. He did throw 105 pitches, it was freezing at Comerica, there's 161 games left, and I thought it was time for him to come out so the big home crowd could see Papa Grande work. Forty-nine times last season, he entered in a save situation and got it done. So why not?

JV took a no-decision in a game he maybe should have finished, but Valverde got the win, we're in first place by a game over the Indians, and all is right with the world. At least until Saturday.

-----------------------

The Blue Jays and Indians opened in Cleveland, and offered further proof of Annie Savoy's contention that the game of baseball is linear and precise in ways that only Walt Whitman can appreciate. Or Isadora Duncan, I forget which ...

Jack Hannahan and J.P. Arencebia homered, giving each team one player who's homered in the first games of his last three seasons. Hannahan in the last three Tribe openers, and Arencebia in the Jays' last two plus his Show debut in August 2010.

The game was also MLB.com's free televised game of the day. The Jays won 7-4 in 16 innings, and there was lots of time for more new league records, for innings played on opening day, and for consumption of a Jays-Indians game from all four possible sources: both teams' radio including a local Sarnia station for the first time in three years, and both TV feeds via the MLB web site.

So we're a two home team town again. And on FM. For 161 of the next 180 days there will be at least three fewer hours of country music on the local radio dial. That's also a good thing.

Opening Eve

With three franchise players -- Cabrera, Verlander, and Fielder -- in the starting lineup two days from today, the spring buzz has been over who will be half of the second base platoon.

Brandon Inge has become the mother-in-law who came to stay "for a couple weeks" a year ago and is still around.

In any other universe, he would have already played himself off the team by hitting under .200 in Florida.  But he's owed $13 million for this season plus a $500K buyout for 2013 and, when waived last July, there were no takers.

So, at this point, you may as well play him, somewhere. 

Hinge made the decision easier for Skipper Leyland and The Miracle Worker by landing on the DL late in the spring campaign. When he comes off on April 15, he'll start against lefties, and go in for defense.  (Having a defensive replacement who's never played a major league game at the position says all that needs to be said about this season's second base arrangement.)

The Hinge soap opera will draw attention away from this year's relentless conquest of AL Central opponents, as the Tigers march towards the big October dance as General Sherman did through Georgia.

But baseball melodrama has a way of handing the guy who doesn't belong a chance to be the hero, and our crystal ball foreshadows a night in June when the backup second baseman no one wanted snags a hot grounder with the bases loaded, and drives in the winning run. Exactly the way it's done on the Hallmark Channel.

------------------------------

Another spring ritual has come and gone -- Tom and Maggie's annual viewing of "Bull Durham."

I pretended to be not watching when Annie Savoy talked quantum physics with Crash on her front porch swing, dripping wet from a late September North Carolina rain, lest the baseball fan curled next to me object.

But she made sure I noticed the candle splashing bathtub scene.