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.

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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.

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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.