Opening Day is here! The Tigers are on TV. So far they went down in order in the top of the first. Austin Jackson struck out for the first time on the season. On the good side he brought an 0-2 count back to a full count, and fouled a pitch off. A leadoff hitter at least wants to to make the pitcher throw pitches, especially the first time through the order so the guys behind him can get a look at the pitcher a bit. So working 7 pitches, and not swinging at stuff out of the strike zone on 0-2 are both improvements if that holds.
Justin Verlander's emphasis on getting off to a good start in April looks good early. He struck out Brett Gardner to leadoff, but has fallen into some 2-out trouble after a walk on a 3-2 2 pitch, a wild pitch, and a walk on a 3-2 pitch to ARod.
He got out of the inning by striking out Robinson Cano, again on a full count. But it was a 32 pitch first inning. That was a problem Verlander had early last seasons. Even when he wasn't getting hit hard he threw too many pitches so he was hitting 100 pitches in the 5th inning and coming out at that point.
It seems like he's in line for something like that today, especially on a cold day and the first start of the season. Verlander's the workhorse so the bullpen depends on him to go 7-8 innings to give them a little rest.
This was a little bad luck. He got squeezed by the ump a bit on the two 3-2 walks. Some close pitches didn't go his way so that added to the pitch count.
In the top of the second Miguel Cabrera singled for Detroit's first hit of the season. Victor Martinez followed with a single in his first Tigers' at-bat.
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