Leyland was all for leaving Jackson in, but his 8th inning pitches were getting up and out a lot. It’s early in the season. He’s young. He was ready to be sat. If you can’t feel comfortable sitting your starter after 8 1/3 innings, you don’t have a bullpen, period.

Do we?

An important thing to remember is that before it got tatooed for the go-ahead runs, Lyon’s curveball was actually damn good! Hill was looking for it and got under it with a great swing. Similarly, the walk that started the 9th inning danger was only accomplished after Lind fouled off what seemed like 100 more great pitches.

Would you blame Duchscherer when Inge did the same in the statement game of 2006? The Blue Jays won that game more than the Tigers lost it.

I’m not ready to throw Lyon under the bus yet. But if this continues, and Leyland starts stretching the starts, I agree we’re in big trouble.

When the bases were loaded with 1 out in the 9th, we really missed Zumaya. A closer is a guy who can get you a scoreless inning, but when you need two outs and an outfield fly is off the table, it’s time for power pitching. Part of me kind of hoped he’d throw in Ryan Perry and go for broke.

Yes. Jackson was out of gas. I think he was even a bit shocked he came out in the eighth, then he tried to give Leyland the ball early.

I am fine with all the decisions Leyland made. He’s got Lyon, he’s got to use him like he was intended, to see if he can do the job.

This was in the game thread last night a bit, but I absolutely agree that Jackson should have been pulled. No use over-stressing your starters at this point in the season. Jackson had a great outing and to see it get dismantled at his own hands would have been horrible — more so than the Lyonfest that followed.

Deja vu any1? Which leads me 2 believe what I said a few months ago, Mr. D needed 2 acquire a solid closer, & why wasn’t Lyon pulled anyways? Where was Rodney, he seems 2 b the only 1/2 way descent guy we got n the BP & he was kinda inconsistent last year 2, kinda like the rest. How many games did the BP lose last year & it looks like they’ve picked up, right where they left off. EJ looked very impressive, better than JV did, it’s a shame Mr. D can’t tell by now JZ is unreliable, just seems 2 b milkin his contract, sittin on DL every year, what a shame…

………and it’s too early in the season to be pushing a relatively unproven, young starting pitcher to do too much. So Leyland was definitely justified. Jackson worries me a little bit. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like last night whenever Jackson didn’t get a first pitch strike, it went to his head and really caused him to try too hard to make up for it. I don’t want to see him lose his confidence so easily, and I think that Leyland understands that Jackson is fairly fragile mentally. But like I said, maybe it’s just me who thinks this way.

Lyon just scares the s*** outta me though. Like many people mentioned last night, he is a Todd Jones redux. In fact, he scares me more than Jonsey ever did, because at least I knew that when it came down to it, Jonsey would get the job done 90% of the time. Lyon has a track record of being a complete basketcase. I know we shouldn’t freak out and judge Lyon’s potential performance for this club on a single game, but last night was a continuation of what he’s been doing for years in Arizona. Oh, and by the way, AL hitters are only slightly more imposing on average than NL hitters, so way to go DD!!!

I don’t mind him pulling Jackson. That decision is obviously a catch-22 if he had blown it. What I do question was bringing back Lyon for the 9th, which to me was another case of Leyland’s overreliance on veterans. Seems to me that would’ve been a good spot for Perry, while saving Rodney for a lead.