It isn't that manager Jim Leyland is losing faith in his closer, right-hander Todd Jones. It would appear to be more of a case of Leyland looking at the reality -- Jones is 40 years old.
Leyland has had to take Jones out of three of the last six innings he's pitched, before they were over, and Friday he said he's going to "back him off a little bit" in terms of how much Jones gets used. Leyland has traditionally tried to limit Jones to three games in a row. Now he might cut that to two, unless one of them was really easy on his arm or it was a night game following a day contest.
Jones has only blown two saves this season and he's been his typical hold-your-breath self. But his fastball seems to be more in the high 80s than the low 90s it has been in the past.
"I'm going to watch him a little closer," Leyland said. "I'm just going to watch closely. If I need to use somebody else for a day, I'm going to do it."
It will also give him an opportunity to see if Joel Zumaya is up to snuff in terms of closing. And right-handers Freddy Dolsi and Fernando Rodney, too.
TWINS 3, TIGERS 2: A sacrifice fly in the seventh inning off LHP Bobby Seay gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead and let the Twins withstand a counterpunch by Detroit in the bottom of the inning. 2B Placido Polanco hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the seventh to narrow the margin to 3-2 but RHP Jesse Crain came on to get 3B Carlos Guillen to fly out deep to center field to end the Tigers' last threat. Guillen's RBI single in the third gave Detroit a brief 1-0 lead. RHP Armando Galarraga struggled with his control but still only allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
