Again, the Tigers pitcher got through three innings without giving up a hit. Again, he ran into a bit of trouble but came out of it giving up only a couple of runs, and again, the first reliever couldn’t keep the door shut, and again, the Tigers lose a game.

No biggie. Kenny Rogers looked good. He retired the first nine batters of the season. Hopefully, it won’t be like Rick Vaughn in Major League II. Anyway, he gave up two in the sixth, but got out of it. You have to figure on giving up three or four runs a game and hope your bats pull you out of it.

Anyway, Zach Miner gave up two in the seventh, and the bats never pulled anything out of anything. I don’t think the Tigers would have scored a run if the game went 20 innings, it was that bad. It just stinks that everyone is slumping to start the season. This team should average about six runs a game, and in two games, they have scored five.

The pitching isn’t bad, but Leyland can’t go to the bullpen like he used to with this Motley Crew. They’re all professionals, but the starter is going to have to go seven innings until he can at least get Fernando Rodney in the rotation. Regardless, the Tigers are 0-2 for the first time since 2003.

The worst part about it is that the Royals first two pitchers look better than Justin Verlander and Kenny Rogers. Hopefully, they will come back down to earth or this season could get mighty long.

Well, it didn’t go badly, except of course for the loss. Verlander was strong early, and didn’t give up a hit for a while, but the bats seemed cold, and it may be a pretty tough first couple weeks of the season if they don’t come around.

Verlander was pretty good through four innings and then got through the fifth. He gave up two in the sixth, and maybe should have come out right there. Unfortunately, he gave up two baserunners in the seventh and Grilli couldn’t keep them from scoring.

Carlos Guillen hit a home run in the 8th to tie the game at four and, to be honest, I thought the Tigers would win the game, but they couldn’t push another run across and the Royals scored a run in the 11th off Denny Bautista.

Don’t fault Bautista, though, because I think he is going to be really good, and if the Tigers can get Joel Zumaya back next year to start closing games, I would look for Bautista to fill the old Zumaya role when Todd Jones (finally) goes off into the sunset.

0-1 on the year. Nothing to worry about, it’s a long season. It’s just strange not being over .500 for the first time in a while…