The Pressbox

Mickey Lolich, star of the 1968 World Series for the Detroit Tigers, spent a half-inning in the TV booth Tuesday night and said some very interesting things when asked if he watched many Tiger games.

Lolich admitted he had never been a huge fan of watching games, even as a kid. He said he watches many of the Tiger games now, but often flips channels. The pace of the game is too slow for him. “You have to remember,” he said. “I used to pitch a nine-inning game in two hours and 15 minutes.”

He hit on one of the biggest problems with today’s games. There are too many pitching changes, too many delays for batters to adjust hitting gloves, too many trips to the mound, too many long at-bats…. just too much time wasted.

Did you ever notice how often get-away games (the last game of a series when the teams have to move on to the next city) are played in less than three hours.

The players can pick up the pace when they want to.

Memorial day almost became very memorable for Detroit sports fans.

The Red Wings took a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals, the Pistons beat Boston to even the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2 and the Tigers were locked up in a great pitchers’ duel with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Tigers lost 1-0 on a bases-loaded walk in the 12th inning. It was a shame to waste a great pitching performance by Kenny Rogers.

You have to question manager’s Jim Leyland decision to intentionally walk a batter to load the bases in the 12th. The bullpen has struggled to throw strikes all season.

Jim Leyland finally blew up at the Tigers on Tuesday and since then they have won three straight and scored 30 runs in those games.

Seems like his explosion was long overdue. Something needed to be done to light a fire under this team.

Granted, the 30 runs came against a Seattle pitching staff that is struggling, but it should restore some confidence in the hitters.

Leyland has to accept a good share of the blame for the Tigers’ awful start. I wrote about Leyland and Flip Saunders of the Detroit Pistons in my column this week. Here is a link:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/KRUGERSPTSCOL/350875574/-1/COLUMNISTS

Thank you, Placido Polanco.

Polanco’s bloop single in the ninth inning – his fifth hit of the game – saved the Detroit Tigers from one of their most frustrating losses of the season Wednesday night.

The Tigers had a four-run lead several times during the game, but their bullpen kept giving it back. When Boston took a 9-8 lead in the top of the ninth and had closer Jonathan Paplebon coming to the mound, it looked like the Tigers were destined for another loss.

Sure, Detroit got a couple of breaks with a fluke infield hit and an error to start the ninth, but Ivan Rodriguez executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, Curtis Granderson hit the ball to the right side to get the tying run home, then Polanco delivered.

The game quickly went from a devastating loss to the kind of win that can spark a team. The Tigers certainly need some sort of spark.

Don’t look now, but the Detroit Tigers are just 2.5 games out of first place following a win over Texas today to complete a three-game sweep of the Rangers. If the White Sox lose tonight to the Yankees, they will be just two games out.

The people who were writing off the season after the miserable first week might be having some second thoughts.

This team still has some flaws – most noticeably the starting pitchers who can’t seem to go longer than five or six innings – but the bullpen has been outstanding of late and the bats have really come to life.

The Tigers are averaging 13.5 runs a game since Curtis Granderson returned to the lineup.

Just as everyone thought during spring training, Armando Galarraga has been the anchor of the Detroit Tiger pitching staff.

With a win Monday, Galarraga not only became the winningest pitcher for the Tigers this season. He also matched the win total for the entire starting staff. Jeremy Bonderman and Kenny Rogers have one win each and Justin Verlander, Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis have yet to win.

Galarraga has been a savior for the Tigers so far. But the bottom line is this: for as much has been said about hitting and the bullpen getting off to bad starts, the Tigers have been betrayed by their starting pitching.

Mario Impemba and Rod Allen of Fox Sports Detroit seem to have a double standard when it comes to no-hitters.

Last summer when Justin Verlander of the Tigers was throwing a no-hitter, Impemba and Allen refused to utter the the term no-hitter. The explained later that they were honoring the baseball tradition of no one talking about a no-hitter when one was in progress for fear of jinxing the pitcher.

They had no such fear of a jinx Saturday when Gavin Floyd of the Chicago White Sox was twirling a no-hit gem. They could not seem to get through a sentence without saying no-hitter.

The Tigers have not yet made it official, but the team has agreed to an eight-year, $152.3 million contract extension with Miguel Cabrera. That’s a ton of money (the fourth-largest contract in baseball behind Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez), but it is an investment the Tigers had to make.

Cabrera is one of the brightest young stars in baseball. They could not afford to let him walk away after trading so much of their future to get him.

The deal also speaks to the change of atmosphere in Detroit. A few years ago, the Tigers had to overpay to get free agents to even think about playing for them. Now, Cabrera says he is happy with his new team and wants to play in Detroit for “a lot of years.”