--RHP Brandon Lyon has not been the bargain Detroit had hoped he would be when it signed him as a free agent last winter. Lyon gave up a game-deciding double in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday at Anaheim to take his second loss of the season. He pitched a scoreless seventh but walked Torii Hunter leading off the eighth. Hunter advanced to second on a deep fly to left and scored on Gary Mathews Jr.'s double off the center field wall. Lyon blew a save opportunity in Detroit's first game and wound up suffering the loss. He had not given up a run since that first game until Tuesday.
--RHP Zach Miner tuned up for a probable start Sunday in Kansas City with one inning of scoreless relief in Anaheim. Miner showed a nice breaking ball and spotted his fastball well Tuesday in working a 1-2-3 sixth inning. He was removed from the Detroit rotation last week because a pair of days off meant the Tigers didn't need a fifth starter. --C Matt Treanor has a shot at becoming rookie RHP Rick Porcello's personal catcher. Treanor, still looking for his first hit of the season in 11 at-bats, has caught both of the 20-year-old's major league starts. The first was a no-decision but Sunday Porcello earned his first win with seven innings of five-hit ball, retiring the last 14 he faced. Treanor most often catches day games after night contests to give regular C Gerald Laird a rest but if he and Porcello continue to work well together it just might be that Manager Jim Leyland will keep the combination going. Leyland managed the late RHP Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych when he was trying to make a comeback in the minors and remembers that another low-hit backup catcher, Bruce Kimm, caught every one of Fidrych's starts as he was going 19-9 in 1976.
BY THE NUMBERS: 179 -- Career home run totals of both Hank Aaron and 1B Miguel Cabrera on their 26th birthdays. Cabrera turned 26 on April 18.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I had a great career. Some people call it a year; I call it a career. My career is still going on. Because of writers and fans, that's why." -- Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych, 54, who suffocated to death April 13 when his clothing got caught in an auxiliary drive shaft while he was working under his 10-wheel dump truck, in a 2001 interview. Fidrych went 19-9 and was Rookie of the Year for the Tigers in 1976 but won just 10 more games due to what later was diagnosed as a torn rotator cuff.
