We were hoping that new pitching coach Rick Knapp would make a difference with all of these talented arms, but starting out with a 12-5 loss in which the ace of the staff gives up 8 runs in 3 2/3 innings doesn’t seem to bode well.

It’s early. There are 161 more games, but once again we start off the season on the wrong foot after high hopes. We;ll have to see how this plays out over the first few weeks, but our biggest concern is that this ball club doesn’t get off to too slow of a start. With the economy as bad as it is, particularly in Michigan, putting butts in the seats is going to be difficult enough as it is. With an inferior product we may end up looking at a fire-sale…

Carl Crawford tied the game in the 10th with a single, then Carlos Pena drew a walk-off, bases-loaded walk to give Tampa Bay the 6-5 win on Sunday.

The Rays took full advantage of Fernando Rodney’s wildness to pull out the win. Willy Aybar led off with a walk, bringing Jason Bartlett to the plate. Bartlett squared to bunt and Rodney plunked him in the hand. Then Rodney hit Shawn Riggans in the chest with the next pitch.

Here was the quote from the Skipper:

“I’ll just tell all of you to say whatever you want and write whatever you want,” Leyland said in his brief postgame media session. “That’s all I’ve got for you today. You guys write about it. You saw it. You write whatever you want. Report whatever you want.”

Rodney has blown four of his five save chances.

Fan that I am, I tried to get a brick or something to hold onto, but like everything else today – there is a price attached and the Historical Society wants some money. Everybody wants some money. How do you monetize memories?

I love the new ballpark; it’s much nicer looking, better located for the city of Detroit, and a real jewel in a city of shit. But all my childhood memories are at Michigan and Trumbull, and no wrecking ball in the world can change that. I suppose this is the price of progress.

Pujols is eligible to come off the DL on Thursday, so this is one of those games that you’d kinda like to win. But it is baseball, and you can’t win ‘em all. We’ll see if they can turn this thing around tomorrow.

Kenny Rogers looked pretty rough, giving up 5 earned runs in 5 1/3. However, he did pick off his Major League Record 93rd runner. It never ceases to amaze me that teams still try to steal against Rogers.

The big news was of course, Sheffield was back off the DL. I am on record as stating that the Tigers have looked better without him, than they have with him. But he did hit a homerun in his return, albeit a meaningless one. I’ll hold my opinion for a couple of weeks to see if my mind is changed on this one. No disrespect to Sheff, but the Mendoza line must not be crossed – not this late in the season.

Cabrera and Pudge both hit homeruns, but the team never really seemed to click. Granderson extended his hitting streak to 12 games which means his average is climbing back to respectability. I don’t think DiMaggio has anything to worry about, though.

The 3rd largest crowd in Comerica Park history (44,446) witnessed a fitting tribute to the 1968 World Series (against St. Louis of course). Mickey Lolich threw out the first pitch to Bill Freehan. Too bad those two couldn’t have given the Tigers a hand on the field today.

Jeremy Bonderman lasted 4 whole innings, giving up 6 hits, 4 walks and 5 earned runs. When Dontrelle Willis comes back, Dombrowski is going to have to do something with one of these starters – DL, or reassignment (or trade). I would like to place my vote that the one pitcher they need to keep is Armando Galarraga. I’m not really sure if I care what they do with the rest of the lot.

It didn’t help that the vaunted Tigers line-up couldn’t hit Darrell Rasner. The Yanks seem to have a good young pitcher in Rasner, who moved to 2-0 with 3.00 ERA. Matt Joyce did hit his first career homer – congratulations! You get your picture up, now keep at it. You’ve already surpassed Jacque Jones (not that it’s saying a lot).

But in the end, the Tigers found a way to lose to an undermanned Yankees line-up, allowing them to snap their 6 game losing streak. The Yankees are playing horribly right now, but come to think of it – not as bad as Detroit.

They left a lot of runners stranded in the later innings, which is unlikely to happen very often. So overall, I liked the performance, and I expect them to take the next two against the Angels. Really looking forward to Galarraga keeping up his surprising pitching and Verlander with his recently improved pitching mechanics.

Sheffield is out with a bum shoulder.

Polanco hasn’t hit well this year, and is out with a bad back.

Jacque Jones has proven nothing.

Cabrera will do well, along with Ordonez, Guillen and maybe Renteria. But we will see no “Murderers Row”, as I mistakenly predicted after the trade. Looking at this line-up with sober eyes, it’s apparent that they will be good. Not great, just good. Without equally good pitching, they will accomplish little this year.

But I’m excited, nonetheless. Why? Tomorrow, we will get another look at Armando Galarraga. Toronto’s hitters will have had some tape to review, so we’ll see how well he does. But I can honestly say I’m excited. It would be nice to leave Toronto with a split and a bright new star in the rotation. One can only hope….

The only thing worse, was seeing Zach Miner come in and toss batting practice to the Indians. He gave up the cycle in one inning of work. Yes, that’s correct – a home run, triple, double, single and even a walk. Good job Zach.