GDT: 5/17/08 - DET (16-26) AT AZ (27-15), 8:10 p.m. ET

PHOENIX -- Carlos Guillen said he's never been part of a team like this before.

He has been part of teams that struggled badly, including a 2005 Tigers club that went 8-24 from Sept. 1 until season's end. But he has never been part of a team with such high expectations that struggled like this.

"I don't know," Guillen said. "I've never been in this situation before."

He and others keep saying things will get better, but it's sounding repetitive even to him sometimes.

"We say this every day, we think we're going to be all right," Guillen said. "But we have to play better, get men on base, swing at a good pitch, be more aggressive."

They'll have to do it soon to turn matters around. No other Tigers team since 2003 had been this far under .500 at this point in the season. Detroit is now at 10 games under after five straight losses, and with the Diamondbacks rolling on a four-game winning streak, it has the potential to get worse.

They still expect to win, Guillen said. But it's just not happening.

"We're not playing right," Guillen said.

It's a phrase he repeated multiple times after Friday's 4-3 loss to Arizona that saw the Tigers lose their grasp on a 3-1 lead with three runs in the seventh. They went scoreless on one hit over the final five-plus innings following Miguel Cabrera's two-run homer in the fourth, but they also had three fielding miscues contribute to their demise.

Manager Jim Leyland has wondered aloud before whether his players are pressing too hard, and team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said he believed as much in an interview with Booth Newspapers on Friday from the team's Class A affiliate at West Michigan.

If they're still pressing, however, they're running low on ideas to solve it.

"If there's an answer to that, I don't know," Leyland said, "because we've done everything we can to try to relax them. They're professionals."

If there's a spark for this team, they haven't yet found it. They'll give Armando Galarraga a chance to be the spark for the first time in more than a week.

Galarraga hasn't pitched since May 7 against the Red Sox. They had hoped to slot Justin Verlander in his place and let Verlander pitch through both turns on his normal rest rather than extra day, but fittingly, even that wouldn't quite work out for him. Sunday's rainout against the Yankees pushed him back into a spot where he's pitching around the off-days.

The Tigers, however, are 4-1 with Galarraga on the mound. Even when he struggled against the Red Sox, Detroit's bats supported him for a 10-9 victory at Comerica Park. Detroit has scored 18 runs in seven games since then.

Detroit's players held a team meeting on Thursday morning in Kansas City to try to bring home the message to avoid pressing in big situations, but it hasn't translated into wins.

"It's not about the meeting. It's the way we've been playing," Guillen said. "We're trying to do our best. I know my teammates, everyone's trying to do the best. We just can't put all the pieces together. Nobody wants to strike out. Nobody wants to make errors. Pitchers want to throw strikes. We want to win games. Everybody's trying to do the best."


2008 Interleague Schedule
• May 16-18: at Diamondbacks
• June 13-15: vs. Dodgers
• June 16-18: at Giants
• June 20-22: at Padres
• June 24-26: vs. Cardinals
• June 27-29: vs. Rockies


Pitching matchup


DET: RHP Armando Galarraga (2-1, 3.07 ERA)
Galarraga took a no-decision in his last start against the Red Sox, giving up five earned runs on seven hits, while striking out six in 5 1/3 innings. He struggled against Kevin Youkilis, as the red-hot first baseman cranked two home runs off him. After winning his first two starts against Cleveland and Toronto, Galarraga has two no-decisions and a loss in his last three starts. He makes his first career start against the Diamondbacks.

AZ:RHP Max Scherzer (0-1, 3.14 ERA)
Scherzer was impressive in his last start against the Cubs, though he did not get a win as the bullpen was unable to hold the lead. Scherzer has made three big league appearances, two as a starter. In his Major League debut on April 29, he set the baseball world buzzing when he retired all 13 batters he faced in relief of Edgar Gonzalez. Scherzer, who was the team's No. 1 pick in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, struck out seven and his electric fastball reached 98 mph at times during the dominating performance. The D-backs put Scherzer in the rotation in place of Gonzalez and he struggled a bit in his first start against the Phillies as he allowed five runs (two earned) on seven hits over four innings.


Tidbits

Cabrera's two-run home run on Friday was the Tigers' first multi-run homer since Cabrera's home run on May 1. That, too, was Cabrera's last RBI until Friday. ... Matt Joyce is expected to start in left field Saturday, with Gary Sheffield having the game off after his start in left Friday. Sheffield could get another start Sunday against Randy Johnson. ... Magglio Ordonez has hit safely in his last 12 Interleague games, batting .511 (23-for-45) over that stretch.

On the Internet

MLB.TV
Gameday Audio
• Gameday
• Official game notes

On television
• FSN-HD

On radio
• 97.1FM/1270AM

Up next

• Sun., May 18: Tigers (LHP Nate Robertson (1-4, 6.04) at Diamondbacks (LHP Randy Johnson (3-1, 5.40 ERA)), 4:10 p.m. ET

• Mon., May 19: Off-day

• Tue., May 20: Tigers (RHP Justin Verlander (1-7, 6.05 ERA)) VS Mariners (RHP Carlos Silva (3-2, 4.17 ERA)), 8:10 p.m. ET

TONIGHT'S STARTING LINEUPS:

Detroit AVG
Granderson, CF .222
Joyce, LF .269
Guillen, 3B .283
Ordonez, RF .321
Cabrera, 1B .263
Rodriguez, C .273
Renteria, SS .262
Raburn, 2B .304
Galarraga, P .000

Arizona AVG
Young, CF .256
Drew, SS .287
Hudson, 2B .295
Jackson, 1B .319
Upton, RF .322
Reynolds, 3B .224
Salazar, LF .286
Snyder, C .276
Scherzer, P .000

bobrob2004's Stat of the day: Magglio Ordonez' career batting average during interleague... .348. 2007... .534. So far in 2008... .750.

Hey, we have our ace on the mound! We probably won't give up more than 9 runs today

Spoiler:

I didn't even see the Guillen-Renteria fiasco last night. I might've thrown my beer through the TV screen!

laprimamirala wrote:

I didn't even see the Guillen-Renteria fiasco last night. I might've thrown my beer through the TV screen!

It was as bad, if not worse than Miggy not catching the pop up fly in foul territory. At least Miggy was close to the camera or dugout and probably was worried about falling in.

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

laprimamirala wrote:

I didn't even see the Guillen-Renteria fiasco last night. I might've thrown my beer through the TV screen!

It was as bad, if not worse than Miggy not catching the pop up fly in foul territory. At least Miggy was close to the camera or dugout and probably was worried about falling in.

I checked out the highlights during yje day today. Very painful to watch.

Evening all.

2 away.

What's with the balsa wood bats?

gala walks the first batter

Pop out

Gala can't throw a strike!

walk

Dammit. That should have been 2.

Possible dp is dropped by Raburn! 2 outs

got off the hook on that one

end of 1 inning 0-0

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

got off the hook on that one

Damn right. Let's hope we got it out of our system!

Go Tigers!!!!

Come on boys!

Maggs gets a walk. Let's go Miggy!

Nice job Maggs. Let's get this party started...

Attaboy Miggy!

2 on, nobody out. Let's make it count!!!

Cabrera singles

We need a homer pudge!

What was Pudge swinging at????? Come on!

Ouch! Pudge - that was a lousy one to chase.

1 away.

Pudge what the hell was that, it was a BALL! k FOR PUDGE

Good job Miggy - breaking up the double play.

Fielders choice. Runners on the corners.

C'mon Ryan!!!

Awwww crap. 3 out.

What's new, same old Tigers!

I don't think socks up is going to help us tonight!