The shining star, the ray of hope for the Detroit Tigers bullpen began his rehabilitation assignment last night, as Joel Zumaya pitched 2/3 of an inning for the Toledo Mud Hens against the Norfolk Tides.
Zumaya entered the game in the eighth inning, and faced three batters. He got out his first hitter, Mike Cervenak, on a ground ball before giving up a double to Jason Dubois. He then struck out Jon Knott with a 78 m.p.h. curveball. That gave him 18 pitches for the evening, close enough to his mandated 20-pitch limit. He seemed satisfied with the work he got in.
Zumaya will again be on a 20-pitch (or one inning) limit tonight, and will then have three days to rest up before pitching on Saturday. Against Columbus, he'll have his workload expanded to 30 pitches or two innings.