Tigers try for turnaround against Sox

04/03/2008 7:22 PM ET
Tigers try for turnaround against Sox
Detroit (0-3) vs. Chicago (1-2), Friday, 1:05 p.m. ET
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

DETROIT -- The reason for the Tigers' season-opening struggles is hard to define, even for their manager. The solution, on the other hand, appears to be relatively simple.

"Win," Jeremy Bonderman said. "There isn't a whole lot to say. We have to go out and play and win ballgames, let our play do the talking. There's a lot of people saying a lot of things about us, but until you go out and win ballgames and do it within those white lines, nothing matters."

There probably won't be a whole lot of talking from the Tigers clubhouse on Friday. Manager Jim Leyland had no plans for a team meeting as of Thursday. It's too early for that. But it wasn't too early for him to air out what he feels his team needs to do.

"I think the key to it is, you'll be all right if you prepare, you look at film, you maybe hit extra, you figure out what you're doing and you work at it. If you just think you'll be all right because you say you'll be all right, that won't happen. We won't be all right if we're not prepared, trying to fix what the problem is. I think a lot of it is mental, and you have to fix that yourself."

It'll have to be a quick fix. After three losses to the Royals, the Tigers now get into a difficult early stretch. They host the revamped White Sox for three games, then hit the road to face the World Series champion Red Sox in their return to Boston for their home opener and ring ceremony. From there, the Tigers have three more games against the White Sox in Chicago, a quick two-game homestand against the Twins, a two-game showdown at Cleveland and a potential four-game trap series at Toronto.

None of them will be taking Detroit lightly, despite the Tigers' recent struggles.

"We have a target on us," Leyland said. "We'll find out how good we are. We'll find out if we're tough enough, because I haven't seen enough toughness in the last couple days. I'm very disappointed in that. I don't mind getting beaten in three games, but I'm very disappointed in the toughness and the grinding-out that this club's supposed to have. So we'll find out."
Few pitchers present more of a grind than White Sox split-finger artist Jose Contreras. When he spots his splitter for strikes, he has given Tigers hitters fits. When he can't, opponents tend to wait him out and wear him down. His stats from last season reflect more of the latter, and his Spring Training stats weren't much better.

On the flip side, however, the Tigers could be without two of their key sluggers. Miguel Cabrera hopes to play Friday after missing Thursday's game with a sore left quadriceps, but he isn't sure. Gary Sheffield, meanwhile, is day-to-day after jamming his left ring finger on a slide into second base Thursday. He, too, hopes to play, but that will depend in part on how much the swelling is contained.

It isn't a great time in Detroit. In some ways, they could use a new series as a new start.

"You can't keep your head down," Placido Polanco said. "You have to pick your head up, bounce back and come out here tomorrow, turn the page. It's a different day."

But even he thinks the key is simple.

"Win games, get the key hits and play better," he said. "I don't know. Whatever we have to do, we need to do it."

Pitching matchup
DET: LHP Nate Robertson (9-13, 4.76 ERA)
For someone who had his share of hard-luck losses last year, starting his season with a struggling offense behind him might seem like deja vu. However, he is coming into the season off of a strong spring in which he rounded out his repertoire to accompany his slider.

CWS: RHP Jose Contreras (10-17, 5.57 ERA)
The Tigers pounded
Contreras last year, batting .347 against him with a .982 OPS, good for 19 runs on 26 hits over 18 innings. He was much tougher against them two years ago, but recapturing that form is a big challenge.

Tidbits
Carlos Guillen is 7-for-12 lifetime against Contreras. ... Jermaine Dye is 11-for-29 with five home runs and eight RBIs for his career off of Robertson. ... Jacque Jones will be back in the lineup in left field after Marcus Thames started there on Thursday.

On the Internet
MLB.TV
Gameday Audio
• Gameday
• Official game notes
On television
• FSN-HD
On radio
• 97.1 FM/WXYT 1270

Up next

• Saturday: Tigers (Dontrelle Willis, 10-15, 5.17) vs. White Sox (Gavin Floyd, 1-5, 5.27), 3:55 p.m. ET

• Sunday: Tigers (Justin Verlander, 0-0, 6.00) vs. White Sox (Mark Buehrle, 0-0, 37.80), 8:05 p.m. ET

• Monday: Off-day

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

man, lets hope the D-Train can get the first win, that would be a definitive plus for me, and on the first game i would be watching, not to jynx em or nuthin

All we can do is hope and

HARD!!

yeah, uh, nevermind the above comment, lets see Robertson get a win on the first game i can see!!! It's televised today so i can watch it!!

just be on the offense! Thome--Konerko--Dye....eeek!

i like thome tho, and i have him on a couple of my fantasy teams, so 1 HR couldnt be too bad,

ok so yeah it could cuz i have the tigers pitching on 3 of em :/

Bite your tongue... you should only draft Tigers on your fantasy team and if you don't then you pray your players play bad against the precious Tigers!!!

lol, i put most of em at the top of my rankings, but most of em were also drafted before i could get them, so im dealing with what i got

I understand. Being a die hard clouds my judgement anyway that is why I rarely bet on the Tigers.

sox have good players...hence the eek!

yeah, i think we better watch out for uribe, he got a hot bat so far this year, and hes on one of my fantsy teams too :/

him too!

and uh, forgot to mentio dye, who is 11-29 career against robertson with 5 HR

Let's take the next two games!


GO TIGERS!

we GOTTA!

GO TIGERS!

We need a rally emoticon!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

Wrong team!

but the message is the same!

@ the rally monkey

bobrob2004 wrote:

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

Wrong team!

What team is it for then??? hmmmm It was the only Rally pic I coould find!

the sign says it all!!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

Wrong team!

What team is it for then??? hmmmm It was the only Rally pic I coould find!

The Angels

EEK! Fox has a woman announcer!

BETTER???