When will the Tigers win the game?

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Red Sox 5, Tigers 0
0000000h my! Will Tigers' skid ever end?
Trying to get on track, Tigers suffer seventh loss to start the season. But Leyland refuses to panic.
Tom Gage / The Detroit News

BOSTON -- Don't be so fast to label the Tigers a dead horse.

For more reasons than one, it's a sore subject.

Before the Red Sox sent the floundering Tigers to their seventh consecutive defeat Tuesday -- a 5-0 loss at Fenway Park that was every bit as hypnotically dull as the rest of their sorry season so far -- manager Jim Leyland couldn't have been more supportive of his winless team.

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He'd been down after Sunday night's embarrassing loss at home to the White Sox. And earlier than that, remember, he said the Tigers looked like they were dead. But now he was emotionally up again, buoyant and energetic.

"I'm not going to get down on this club," Leyland said. "I'll tell you that right now. I'll be the most positive person here. I won't sit around and pout just because a good Tigers' team isn't doing good right now. If you're looking for that, you're looking in the wrong area."

Later in the same conversation, when the topic turned to something other than what's wrong with his team, Leyland happened to mentioned his three thoroughbred horses.

Make that two, and here's why.

"Their names are My Miss Kellie (named for his daughter) and Little River Bob (named for his friend who trains them)," Leyland said. "They're a year old. At this point, I don't know if they can even run around a merry-go-round."

His third horse had been named Legendary Lloyd (named for Leyland's friend and Tigers hitting coach Lloyd McClendon). Legendary Lloyd met a far worse fate than the Tigers have so far.

"He ran through a fence," Leyland said.

He what?

"He ran through a fence, tore himself up, and had to be put down," Leyland said. "As in down and out."

So far, none of the Tigers has run through a fence. As a team, they've hit a wall, perhaps, with the constantly surprising way they've played, but at least they've lived to run another day unlike hapless Lloyd.

The problem, however, continues to be the hole they're digging for themselves. At 0-1, it was thought the Tigers couldn't possibly go 0-3 against the Royals.

At 0-4, it also was thought they couldn't possibly be swept at home by the White Sox.

And coming to Fenway, there always was the chance they might catch the Red Sox on the jet-lag end of a recently completed 16,000 mile to trip to Japan and back.

Some jet lag.

Instead of snapping out of it, the Tigers looked as befuddled as ever. Kenny Rogers (0-2), the sharpest of the starters through the first turn of the rotation, wasn't the least bit sharp this time, throwing 107 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.

The hitters didn't do much, either. The supposed Detroit powerhouse that had scored just 15 runs in six games now has scored just 15 in seven.

It took until the fifth before the Tigers put a runner on second against starter Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-0). It wasn't until the sixth, with the bases loaded, two outs and Carlos Guillen at the plate, that it looked like perhaps the either-or factor finally was going their way.

Instead of close calls and diving catches going against them, suddenly when the Tigers were down 3-0 but still in it, there was a ray of good luck. Coco Crisp in center trapped Placido Polanco's liner instead of catching it. Earlier, Polanco's record streak of errorless games ended at 186 with a bad throw to third, but in better times, his single would have led to something as consolation.

Gary Sheffield then was ruled safe at first with an infield single on a call that could have gone either way.

Hmmm.

Maybe a ray of light.

After that, Miguel Cabrera drew his second consecutive four-pitch walk off Matsuzaka.

Hmmm. Again.

A hit with two outs from Guillen would have gotten the Tigers back in it. A big hit would have tied it. Instead, he flied out to center and, of course, the Tigers didn't threaten again.

The Red Sox tacked on two more runs in their half of the sixth off Jason Grilli, including a bases-loaded walk. That not only ended the scoring but left the Tigers to their self-assigned blame

For instance, Leyland said Rogers pitched well enough to give the Tigers a chance to win, but Rogers was hearing none of it.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm expected to do a lot better," he said. "It's always about starting pitching and today I wasn't good enough to overcome the mistakes I made and give our guys a chance to relax and swing the bats the way they're capable of."

Rogers didn't sugarcoat the predicament of the team, either.

"It's frustrating in all aspects," he said. "But let's not kid ourselves, we haven't shown anything yet. There's not one phase of the game we've done even adequately. Right now, we're the worst team in baseball."

"Right now, we're the worst team in baseball."

But a dead horse?

Not even close.

You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com.