Jim Leyland’s lineup construction always baffles me.  Sometime’s it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  I’ve always been convinced he writes in the position first then fills in the person second which is why we have Ryan Raburn and his career .331 OBP leading off today.  He did go one for four with a run but why not put Carlos Guillen, who has a pretty good eye, up there when Austin Jackson has the day off.

Anyway, the Tigers lost this afternoon.  Rick Porcello pitched six rough innings in which he gave up ten hits before the pen had their struggles.  Ryan Perry gave up a pair of runs in one inning and he fell to 0-1 while Phil Coke also struggled when he gave up two runs.  Coke has the interesting distinction of having a higher WHIP (2.00) then he does ERA (1.50).  It’s a small sample size but you get those aberations early.

Johnny Damon doubled and singled in the 7-3 loss.  Magglio Ordonez hit his third home run of the season and he drew two walks.  Man, he and Cabrera have really raked in the first week and a half of the season.  Brandon Inge also had another nice game and he went one for two with two walks.

The Tigers get their first day off in over a week before they head out west (and south) to start a eleven game road trip.  First up are the Mariners, who don’t score too many runs so I like their chances.  This all leads into a three game home series in a week and a half against the Twins.  Oddly, their next day off isn’t until May 6 so they’re going to be playing 20 straight games.  Leyland’s going to have to get everyone a day off here and there to keep everyone fresh because that’s a long time especially this early in the season.

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