More photos » Gene J. Puskar - AP

One word: Awwwwww...

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The story of the day was the return of Curtis Granderson to Lakeland. Everyone's favorite former leadoff man showed why he'll be missed, going 2-3 with an RBI, and robbing Miguel Cabrera of an extra base hit, as he led the Yankees evil empire to a 9-8 victory over the Tigers.

The game's big hit was by the Yankees' Greg Golson, who took Tigers' non-roster invitee Phil Dumatrait deep for a game winning two-run home run in the 9th.

Leading the Tigers offense  was the hot hitting Gerald Laird, who clubbed a grand slam off of Joba Chamberlain in the 3rd, Ryan Raburn, who went 2-3 with a solo shot in the 4th, Wilkin Ramirez (2-2 as a DH) and Jeff Larish (2-3 while playing 3rd base).

All in all, another solid game for the Tigers' offense, though 8 K's and 12 left on base did raise my eyebrow a tad.

As for the pitching...do we really want to go there? Well, if we must...

In the race for the 5th spot in the rotation, Armando Galarraga was nothing special today. He went 2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks. A quadruple two-ple, so to speak.

The only Tigers pitcher to come out of today's game unscored upon was18 year old Jacob Turner. The 1st round draft pick struck out the side in a scoreless 3rd...but also filled the bases with 2 walks and a hit batter, and had to strike out Mark Teixeira to end the threat. Still, there was plenty to like in the youngster's debut.

But the game was all about  the return of Curtis Granderson, at least for one day:

"On the bus ride over here, I was just wondering how it was going to go, and everything went pretty good," Granderson said. "I wasn’t really sure what to expect. In spring training, they kind of cheer everybody. I’m thankful for it."

As for his counterpart, new Tigers left fielder Johnny Damon (who missed the game with a sore big toe), he had this to say about his former teammates :

"I got to see a whole bunch of them and, secretly, they all miss me."

If you say so, Johnny. If you say so...

Comment of the Day

I'm goiving it to ChrisDTX, for starting the ball rolling on the Jacob Turner bandwagon:

The man, the myth, the legend

Who's ready to jump on?

Hey guys! By the time this post goes up, I'll be on my way to Lakeland with my dad to take in a few days of Tigers spring training baseball.

I just wanted to give a heads up to everyone that I'll be blogging here whenever I can, including photos and hopefully some videos. I plan to "live tweet" from the games when I'm not shooting photos - I will be tweeting at @norunsupport, so if you're interested, please follow along there. That account normally contains tweets that alert you to posts on my other mostly-baseball blog - so if you decide to unfollow after spring training, I won't be offended!

BYB regulars frisbeepilot and wepri31 (Jason and Wendy, respectively) will be joining me at some point. If you are also in Lakeland drop me a line! I'll be at the games the 10th-15th, though I am probably not traveling for the away game on the 11th. Hope you enjoy my ramblings.

Hey all, just wanted to update you on the Official Bless You Boys Fantasy League (earlier post here).

We filled all 12 spots over the weekend with a good mixture of BYB regulars and newcomers, as well as fantasy league newbies and veterans alike. The big thing that makes everyone start on a bit more even of footing is that this will be the first auction league for all of us.

Without further ado, here the participants:

1. Me!

Team name: Superior Monsters

I wanted to participate in an auction and never had the chance. But since CBSSports.com's Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League makes it so easy to set one up and run one, this is a great chance to do something new. I don't know how I'll finish but I do know I won't overpay for Albert Pujols!

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More photos » Charlie Riedel - AP

Brennan Boesch makes a nice diving catch.

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Stephen Strasburg made his major league spring training debut today. And that was nice and all for him. But I don't care, frankly.

Because Austin Jackson homered with a high-arcing shot to center field. Not off Strasburg mind you. It came in the middle of the game when the Tigers' batters made a mess out of the Nationals' pitchers. Still, it was the second or third good thing Jackson did on the day. Earlier, he turned a lazy left field single into a double by wisely taking the extra base. All I know about him is what I see in box scores and a very small sample size of a single game on television. But so far, I like what I see.

Don Kelly had another nice game himself. Besides showing he is a perfectly capable third baseman, Kelly had a nice day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

I didn't watch the whole game, but  two other things struck me. One, Magglio Ordonez's opposite field home run was a nice shot. Using the whole field like that will be pretty useful in Comerica. And Brennan Boesch's diving catch in right field was quite nice. I thought that was Clete Thomas flying through the air in the late innings!

As for the Tigers' pitching? The guys who'll break camp with the team -- Rick Porcello, Ryan Perry, Jose Valverde -- all did pretty well, limiting the Nationals to two hits and one walk.

All in all, a nice game to watch for the first one of the year on TV.

Comment of the Night

Critiquing the Nationals announcers' use of "old fastball" vs. "young fastball" in analysis, Dale S wrote:

The old fastball

doesn’t understand that "rap music" the young fastball listens to these days

Max Scherzer may want to talk to Jeremy Bonderman. No. Wait. That might be a bad idea. Let me try again.

The right-handed Max Scherzer may want to talk to lefties Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson. The Tigers' newest starting rotation addition pulled his best Bonderman-impersonation on Monday, allowing five runs in the first inning and not even making it to the break in the frame before manager Jim Leyland had to retrieve him.

Five runs, four hits,  three walks, two ... turtle doves ... and one out.

Ouch.

Willis, meanwhile, extended his scoreless streak by another two innings. He gave up a walk but no hits, and he had two strikeouts. He hasn't given up a run yet in his two appearances. Today was similar to Sunday when Robertson pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Bonderman -- who gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning. Lefty Phil Coke also pitched a scoreless inning.

At this point it is worth noting the defense behind the Tigers' pitchers today was not the same defense they'll see during the regular season, with the only regulars being Miguel Cabrera at first base, Scott Sizemore at second and infield utilityman Ramon Santiago playing shortstop. Of course, Scherzer still needed to throw more strikes than he did.

At the plate the Tigers were finally kept in the park and were held to just one extra-base hit, a double by Casper Wells.

Comment of the Night

Off-topic but that's because there weren't many comments that stood out to the BYB Cabal today. So, Murrajo takes it with this commentary on the game:

and the cat just threw up on the kitchen table

my day is now complete!

Miss my interview with Marquette's ESPN970 and want to know my thoughts on the site or the Tigers? The MP3 file for the interview can be listened to below.

Sports Pen

(Doesn't SBN have a streaming audio thing? Oh well!)

Jeremy Bonderman gave up six runs on six hits -- two of them home runs -- as the Tigers took it on the chin in Dunedin on Sunday.

After watching the ball leave the park on his third pitch, Bonderman loaded the bases with a pair of singles and walk before Randy Ruiz hit the grand slam for Toronto. A few more baserunners later, Bondo's day was over.

But Bonderman wasn't the only one with problems keeping the baseball on the playing field. The teams combined for six home runs on the day. Magglio Ordonez and Ryan Strieby went back-to-back off Brian Tallet in the first inning for Detroit. Gerald Laird went long in the third.

The teams combined for 22 hits.

On the mound for Detroit, Zach Miner stopped the bleeding in the first, then Nate Robertson threw three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and no walks. Armando Galarraga gave up two hits in an inning.

Both of Detroit's losses this season have come at the hands of the Jays.

Comment of the Night

Detroitchik threw a softball in the air and NCDee hit it out of the park, in talking about Bonderman's "little trouble" on the mound.

kinda like Custer had "a little trouble"

By the way, you'll find (somewhere) on the left sidebar a leaderboard for comments of the night, if you're interested in that sort of thing!

It's been years since the two clubs played in March, but the Detroiters made the best of the day, as the Tigers cruised to a 9-5 victory on Saturday helped by a surge at the start.

In fact, Clete Thomas was halfway to the cycle by the time the first inning ended after leading off with a home run. It was clearly not Orioles starter Kevin Millwood's day. Also for Detroit, Austin Jackson went 2-for-2 with two runs scored. And Casper Wells hit a home run, too. And great offensive stats can be found all over the box score, really.

On the pitching side, Justin Verlander and Jose Valverde both made their spring training debuts, and Daniel Schlereth bounced back from his first appearance with a one strikeout, no-hit inning.

What did Verlander think of all the meaningless run support? The ever-quotable Jim Leyland told the media (via the Detroit News):

"He got antsy," manager Jim Leyland said of Verlander. "He came up to me and said something about saving the runs for the regular season. I said, 'What do you want me to do about it?'"

Verlander wanted to work on stuff in his first appearance, which lasted three innings.

"I wanted to mix it up a little bit, use some off-speed, but it's spring training. I'm just out there to get my work in and do what I need to get done."

The only blemish on the day were the four runs scored off Jay Sborz, actually. But whatever.

Comment of the Night

TigerDog1 had some fun with the fact people can read too much into spring training:

This team might score 1,000 runs!