Detroit Tigers Notes And Quotes

--RHP Max Scherzer picked up a victory Monday at Seattle, although a high pitch count forced him out of the game after six innings. Scherzer was a little wild with his fastball, walking four, and he gave up the first home run allowed by a Detroit pitcher in 11 games, a two-run blast in the third. Scherzer was using his fastball early more than he did in his last outing. He struck out seven. "He's got to get more economical with his pitches," manager Jim Leyland said. "You can't have 50 pitches after two innings. He's got to attack hitters a little bit better with his fastball and slider. He should get us through the seventh inning just about every time."

--LF/INF Ryan Raburn made his first start of the season at second base. Manager Jim Leyland, looking for more sock from his run-starved lineup, gave Raburn his first infield start since mid-August instead of inserting INF Ramon Santiago for left-handed-hitting 2B Will Rhymes. Seattle was starting a left-hander. Raburn played 15 games at second last year but started most of his games in left field. Raburn is one of several struggling Tigers. He went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts, and he has fanned 14 times in his past seven games.

--DH Victor Martinez singled in the second inning, but he had to come out for a pinch runner due to a right groin strain after he reached second. The loss of Martinez meant Detroit was praying nothing happened to C Alex Avila because the backup, UT Don Kelly, has almost zero catching experience since he was a child. Martinez strained the groin in his last at-bat Saturday and sat out Sunday's game. Manager Jim Leyland said before Monday's game Martinez would not catch until Friday at the earliest even though the Tigers were scheduled to face four lefties this week, including Monday. Now they will have to determine whether the injury is serious enough to warrant placing him on the disabled list.

--DH Casper Wells came in to pinch-run for starting DH Victor Martinez in the second inning and remained in the game. Wells' playing time figured to increase this week with Detroit facing four left-handed starters. He has sparse playing time, almost exclusively when lefties face the Tigers. Wells went 0-for-3 with a walk Monday.

--C Alex Avila will be behind the plate against both right- and left-handed pitching at least until the weekend. A sore groin muscle is bothering Detroit's other catcher, DH Victor Martinez, and the Tigers don't have a third alternative. Martinez normally would have caught against any or all of the four lefties scheduled to pitch against Detroit this week, including Monday.

--1B Miguel Cabrera celebrated his 28th birthday with two hits and three runs. It was the second straight year Cabrera has spent his birthday in Seattle. Last year, Cabrera hit a home run on the day he turned 27. Seattle tried to pitch around him when it could Monday, but there was no place to put him in the seventh, and he lined an RBI single to center.

--RHP Joel Zumaya has been transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL after tests failed to disclose the source of lingering pain in his right elbow. He hasn't pitched since the first game of the exhibition season, his only action since the tip fracture at the end of his elbow was secured by the insertion of a screw last summer. Nerve damage was ruled out by tests Monday, and Tigers trainer Kevin Rand said, "It'll be determined on Wednesday what direction to go in. Six more weeks of rehab, or a diagnostic 'scope to go in there and try to find out what's going on."

--RF Magglio Ordonez was back in the lineup after another game off but will sit out one of Detroit's next two in Seattle in deference to occasional soreness in his right ankle. He returned to action Saturday night after missing four games, sat out Sunday and was removed for a pinch runner after reaching second during a seventh-inning rally. "I thought, going into spring training," manager Jim Leyland said, "that we'd have to watch things, that he wouldn't play at the pace he's played. But after early indications, it's sticking out a little more obvious. This was a day game after a night game (Sunday). I think it makes sense to rest it. Why I'm using the expression 'touch-and-feel' is that he may come in one day, everything's fine, and you can play him. And you might be able to play him the next day, too, but it might be sore."

--RHP Ryan Perry took another step to returning to Detroit's active roster with a clean inning of relief Monday for Class AAA Toledo. Perry, eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday, threw 15 pitches (10 strikes) and had a strikeout. Perry was placed on the disabled list with an eye infection that prevented him from wearing the contact lenses he needs to see well enough to pitch.

BY THE NUMBERS
2 -- Home runs allowed by Detroit pitching in the last 11 games after Seattle's LF Milton Bradley hit a two-run blast in the third inning Monday and 1B Justin Smoak added a solo home run in the eighth.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"The (elbow) bone has healed up. It's kind of a puzzle. Nobody can point and say, 'That's why he has pain. That's the cause.' On the fracture side, everything is fine, but there's something causing pain. He's tender right over the screw. It's frustrating for Joel. It's real tough. He rested it six weeks, picked up a baseball, everything felt great. Twenty-four throws in he felt great, on the 25th he felt something -- and now he can't pick up a baseball." -- Tigers trainer Kevin Rand, on the lingering elbow problems of RHP Joel Zumaya, who continues to have undiagnosed pain in the area of the elbow that was surgically repaired last summer.

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