Two games, two pitching duels, though I’m not sure how much Gil Meche was part of Saturday’s duel. Whatever the case, there are two distinct impressions out of this series already. First, Seattle’s offense doesn’t look nearly the same without Richie Sexson or Adrian Beltre hitting well. They can’t seem to create offense in that circumstance without Ichiro, and pitchers know that enough to pay attention when Ichiro is on base. M’s manager Mike Hargrove basically dismissed Robertson’s impact after the game.

“Not to take credit away from Robertson, but it was us not being patient and trying to do too much,” Hargrove said. “Tonight, we were our own worst enemies. We tried to make things happen when they weren’t there.”

That said, the Tigers wouldn’t have pulled out three low-scoring games like this last year, no matter how many lumbering first basemen Pudge threw out. It was hard enough for them to win four straight last year, period, but that sense of waiting to see what goes wrong seems to be gone. Detroit’s starters are making pitches, arguably none bigger than Robertson’s called third strike on Sexson in the seventh.

Hopefully everyone has a chance to watch at least the first few innings Sunday. Verlander vs. King Felix could be a matchup of two future Cy Young candidates.

to try to steal against Pudge this season is … Richie Sexson? Something went horribly wrong there.