Detroit Tigers Notes And Quotes 5-5-11

--RHP Joel Zumaya is scheduled to undergo exploratory surgery Tuesday to determine the cause of lingering right elbow pain that has kept him from pitching since the first exhibition game of spring training. Dr. James Andrews will perform the operation.

Zumaya, who broke a bone in his elbow last year, threw as hard as usual in his one appearance of the spring, but elbow pain has kept him out of action since. Recent examinations produced a recommendation of either surgery or six weeks of rest, but two weeks into the six, it was decided that an operation was the way to go.

The surgery means Zumaya may not be able to pitch again this season. He can become a free agent at the end of the season.

--RHP Max Scherzer turned in a dazzling performance, eight shutout innings with all of his pitches effective, to improve to 5-0. Scherzer struck out a season-high nine, six of them on changeups, and allowed four hits and two walks. His fastball was topping out at 97 mph, and his occasional slider kept Yankees hitters off balance. Manager Jim Leyland opted not to let him go out for the ninth with a 4-0 lead and 109 pitches on his log.

"He was really aggressive in the strike zone," Leyland said. "He went after them. If you pitch careful from pitch one, they'll really wear you out."

--RF Magglio Ordonez, dropped down to sixth in the order with a batting average well under .200, stroked his first home run of the season after lining a single to right. It was his second two-hit game in a row.

"We talked a couple of days ago," Ordonez said of a conversation he had with manager Jim Leyland, "and I told him it was OK to drop me (to sixth) in the order. My ankle hurts sometimes; it keeps me from swinging. But I found a way to get my swing back."

The ankle, fractured last July, kept Ordonez from generating power with the lower half of his body, but his three plate appearances Wednesday suggest he might be right.

"Let's not get too carried away," Leyland said. "I'm on record as saying if he doesn't hit I'm an idiot. Of course, a lot of people think I am anyway, but that's OK. It's in the book. We'll see."

--LF Brennan Boesch was bumped up to third in manager Jim Leyland's revamped batting order, and one of the reasons showed up right away. He singled in the first and third innings, and the second time he scored all the way from first on a double into the left field corner by 1B Miguel Cabrera, a play the former No. 3 occupant, RF Magglio Ordonez could not have made. "We talked about that," manager Jim Leyland said of one of the reasons Boesch was chosen to bat third. Another was the possibility of him seeing more fastballs in front of Cabrera.

He got some pointers on hitting third by perhaps Detroit's greatest No. 3 hitter, Hall of Fame RF Al Kaline.

"Jim had me talk to him," Kaline said. "I just told him, 'You can't let it eat you up. Have a good game plan, take good swings and let it fall where it does. You can't get mad and you can't let it eat you up.'"

Boesch's response?

"That's easier said than done for everyone," he said. "You want to produce on a regular basis. It's human nature to try to win the game."

Leyland said, "His last hurdle is to be able to relax day after day, so we tried to use a psychological ploy with him. An out is not the end of the world. The point we are making to him is that it's OK to make an out."

--DH Victor Martinez returned to the lineup and singled in his first turn at bat, then scored a run. Manager Jim Leyland said the best part of having Martinez back was he didn't have to answer any more questions about who's batting behind 1B Miguel Cabrera. Martinez walked his last time up. He'll be catching Thursday afternoon, as C Alex Avila is not scheduled to start.

--RHP Al Alburquerque finished his first winning game for Detroit, working a scoreless, four-batter ninth inning. "He made a mistake on the first batter," manager Jim Leyland said, noting that Alburquerque hit 1B Mark Teixeira with an inside 1-2 slider. "But you saw what his stuff can do." Alburquerque's electric slider bailed him out on the next three batters -- strikeout, strikeout, groundout to second. After hitting Teixeira, Alburquerque went 2-0 on 3B Alex Rodriguez but came back to fan him on a 3-2 slider.

--C Alex Avila was scheduled for a day off Thursday, although there will probably be questions in some quarters because he got two more hits Wednesday in Detroit's 4-0 win over the Yankees. Avila looked bad fanning on three breaking pitches offered by RHP Freddy Garcia but doubled and singled in his next two at-bats. However, he has caught every game for nearly two weeks, and manager Jim Leyland doesn't want him wearing out. The fact that he and DH/C Victor Martinez are now the only catchers on the roster means he probably won't play at all Thursday unless something happens to Martinez.

--CF Austin Jackson continues to oscillate between good games and poor with an 0-for-4 performance. Instead of facing fastballs as he did the previous two games (he couldn't handle them in the first instance), RHP Freddy Garcia fed him a steady stream of off-speed and breaking pitches, and Jackson fanned in his last two at-bats.

BY THE NUMBERS
5 -- Consecutive seasons in which RHP Joel Zumaya has spent extensive time on the disabled list. He was active all of his rookie season, 2006, but has spent a minimum of 30 days on the disabled in every year since and may not pitch at all this season.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"Let's not get too carried away. I'm on record as saying if he doesn't hit I'm an idiot. Of course, a lot of people think I am anyway, but that's OK. It's in the book. We'll see." -- Manager Jim Leyland, on his continuing professions of faith in the ability of RF Magglio Ordonez.

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