I’m not sure my game recap did justice to Nate Robertson’s postgame interview, a 20-minute session that seemingly alternated between a soliloquy and a question-and-answer session. He wasn’t blasting himself, teammates, opponents, coaches, management or the umpires. It wasn’t exactly clear what he was blasting other than a perception of him that he says is out there and focuses too much on his raw stats in a game than the quality of the games he pitches.

"What happened to me tonight is you can’t judge players, you can’t judge results of game based on a line score. Not me, anybody that plays this game. This game is not favorable. We glorify somebody who three out of 10 times is sucessful and they fail seven times. It’s difficult with pitchers what we go out there and do. You have to do so much to win a ballgame. That’s why you really enjoy wins at this level. But so many little things can contribute to an outcome like we had tonight."

And to say he wasn’t happy with this outcome was an understatement:

"It’s easy in the situation that we’re in, we’re hitting a little skid, playing the Yankees, it’s easy if something doesn’t go your way, let frustration go, effect what you’re trying to do out there. Tonight a lot of frustrating things happened. You’re talking about jam shots. You’re talking about guys out in front of pitches. You get a little ground ball, a guy still scores. It’s like, what more can you do? What can I do? I think I did everything I could, and I’m good enough to beat those guys. I know that. I feel that way every time I’m out there. Doesn’t matter who it is."

It sounded like some of his postgame interviews from last year. When he lost a makeup game in Cleveland last September, he said, "I’ve come to the conclusion that I have very little control over the outcome of a game." The difference is that the September loss was part of a season-ending streak of six losses in seven starts to finish with 16 losses on the year. Wednesday was his first loss since April 17, which makes you think Leyland has a point when he says handling success is a learning process.

Robertson said many times during his six-week unbeaten stretch that he believes he’s had one bad inning all season, that being his third inning against Cleveland April 17. He often pitches like he has something to prove with every start, which is a good drive to have as long as it doesn’t become self-destructive. Making a detour and jawing with the umpire on his way out of the game might not have been the most constructive thing to do in that regard. He’s still 5-3 and the team still has the Majors’ best record.

Robertson starts the first game of that huge series against the White Sox next Tuesday, which now becomes almost as interesting just to see how he rebounds from Wednesday. From what Robertson said, it sounds like Kenny Rogers talked to him after the game about handling frustration. Even before Robertson’s session, Leyland alluded to it when asked if he worries about Robertson’s frustration carrying over.

"No, I don’t worry about that. Big-league pitchers are supposed to handle that kind of stuff. Nate Robertson gave us everything and more than we needed tonight. He gave us an outstanding performance, a performance certainly well enough to be in the ballgame and have a chance to win it. It was just what the doctor ordered. But … for anybody to be temporarily frustrated, I think that’s fine. But anybody who has that bother them over a period time or carry over needs to mature."

In case you missed it, the Tigers called up Zach Miner and optioned Jack Hannahan back to Triple-A Toledo. Miner will be used in relief; Leyland said they needed an extra arm with so many relievers used Tuesday night. As of now, Colon is expected to get another start Sunday against the Red Sox.

Also, no news yet on Mike Maroth, who was supposed to meet with Dr. Yocum today.

Justin Verlander was named co-winner the AL Player of the Week award announced today, sharing it with Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford. Jason Johnson was the last Tigers pitcher to win it back in 2004. Walt Terrell in ’91 was the last before that. We’ll see what that means for Verlander in Rookie of the Month voting among media members in a couple days. The fact that Papelbon actually gave up a run this month might help this case, but not much.

Those of you who have a subscription to Baseball America might be interested in this piece from Monday on University of Texas center fielder Drew Stubbs. It pretty sums up the gamble the Tigers and other teams in the early part of the first round have to weigh when evaluating him. Great athlete – if he can hit.

For those of you who still aren’t sure what exactly Curtis Granderson brings to the leadoff spot, Monday was a good example. Without Granderson in the lineup, the only hitter in the Tigers lineup who was really making 42-year-old Randy Johnson work on a 92-degree day was Brandon Inge, whose 10-pitch walk in the third inning came after Johnson needed just 21 pitches to retire the other eight hitters in the lineup. Placido Polanco followed his lead and took a five-pitch walk, his first walk in 186 plate appearances since Scott Elarton walked him on Opening Day.

Part of it was Johnson, who was spotting his pitches much better than he supposedly was in previous outings and frequently moved ahead of hitters. But Jim Leyland wasn’t very happy with his team’s at-bats, and the relatively quick outs continued after Johnson left. Granderson’s strikeouts are more than you want to see out of a leadoff hitter, but he’s fourth among Major League leadoff hitters in pitches per plate appearance, and he’s one of just three Tigers above 4.00 in that category (Inge and Chris Shelton are the others). The next-highest regular is just above 3.5. And while Granderson leads the team in strikeouts, he leads in walks, too.

I’m not saying that Granderson should’ve played Monday, because the way Johnson was pitching, he would’ve been awfully tough on him. That said, a game like this shows what Granderson contributes to this team. He’s an underrated table-setter who knows how to make pitchers work surprisingly well for a rookie. Without him Monday, the Tigers looked more like last year’s lineup.

Could it be we all had the reverse logic when foreseeing the Yankees series as a test for the Tigers? The Bergen Record dedicated an entire story looking forward to the Tigers series, and Alex Rodriguez had this to say:

"It will be a good test for us," he said. "They’re kind of like the White Sox of this year."

To be fair, Rodriguez also said he wasn’t curious to see the Tigers. Joe Torre was, though. Here’s what Torre told reporters Monday morning:

"Anybody that says they aren’t surprised isn’t telling the truth. You knew they were so much better than their record last year, because when you look at
Robertson, Bonderman and some of the guys they bring out of the bullpen, you
understand that the only way to get better is to have somebody in the middle of
the field that can pitch on a regular basis. They seem to have guys who can go
out there and do it."

Sunday mornings are usually good times for managers to have longer pregame talks with the media. A lot of teams won’t take batting practice before day games, so there’s more time. Plus, it generally feels like a laid-back day. So Leyland took the time and talked about his team’s hot start. He talked about taking advantage of opportunities, about winning games in different ways, about getting the fans in Detroit excited again and about beating the teams they’ve played.

In many ways, he sees this coming week against the Yankees and Red Sox as a potential trap. No team can keep up the pace they’ve put up so far this season. If that pace falls off this week, the headlines will go back to this team not being for real because of the teams they just lost to.

"I’m sure that there’s still a lot of Doubting Thomases," he said. "I don’t blame them. I can understand that. But what do you want me to do about it?"

The national media didn’t pay much attention to this team, he said, until their hot start. Now he sees experts saying they knew guys like Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya would make immediate impacts. Part of that, of course, is the view of a manager whose hiring one publication rated as the worst move of the offseason. But Leyland sees a bandwagon that’s starting to get a little crowded for a team whose expectations seem to be spiraling. Nobody, of course, knew this team would go on this kind of run, including Leyland. But Leyland talked in Spring Training about this team having talent.

"This has been unbelievable, this pace," he said. "I don’t know what the ****’s going on. But I know this: I think we’ve got a pretty good team. I think they’re having fun, I think they’re enjoying playing, and I think they’re getting better. But we’ve still got a long way to go."

Is all that progress wasted if they can’t beat up on the Yankees and Red Sox this week? Of course not. But because it’s the Yankees and Red Sox, it’ll get a lot more attention than losing two of three at the Angels last month or splitting two-game sets with the Angels and Royals. Leyland’s rant is a way to relieve some pressure that’s awfully hard to endure over an extended stretch like this, since it’ll go beyond this weekend and through the next road trip to the White Sox and Blue Jays.

It’ll be Roman Colon. Leyland announced it in his pregame interview. He’s already stretched out after Thursday’s game, and it doesn’t hurt them tremendously in the bullpen because they brought up another reliever in Maroth’s place. Colon won’t be on a tight pitch count, and could even go 100 pitches if he’s pitching well against the Yankees. The other candidates Leyland said he had been considering were JordanTata and Wilfredo Ledezma at Triple-A Toledo and Humberto Sanchez at
Double-A Erie. Leyland wouldn’t commit to saying Colon will hold down the spot for as long as Maroth is out, but that’s partly because he doesn’t know how long he’ll be out.

On that topic, Maroth said he’ll fly out to California to see Dr. Lewis Yocum Wednesday for tests on his elbow. Yocum is another specialist along the same line as Dr. Andrews, for those who haven’t heard of him.

For those who saw his pitching line for Toledo Friday night (2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 51 pitches) and wondered what was going on, he was on a limit of three innings or 50 pitches put in place by the Tigers. That leaves him available on short rest should they decide to use him in Mike Maroth’s rotation spot Tuesday against the Yankees. At this point, it looks like it’ll be either Roman Colon (who was stretched out relieving Maroth Thursday), Jordan Tata (also at Triple-A Toledo) or Ledezma. Zach Miner, who has starred for the Mud Hens this season, is the scheduled starter Saturday, which would pretty much rule him out for Tuesday.

No perfect game this time for the potential Tigers draft pick, but he scattered two runs over 6 1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts. Plenty of scouts were present, the Tigers among them. More info from the Dallas Morning News (registration required to see the story):

Kershaw, a left-hander ranked by Baseball America as the nation’s top senior, struggled to locate his breaking ball and changeup. He relied on his 90-plus-mph fastball even more than usual.      

"Against a good-hitting team like this, you’re going to give up some runs if that’s all you’re throwing," Kershaw said. "But I was just happy to get the win."

Kershaw’s bat was more impressive than his arm against Corsicana (27-8). He went 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and three RBIs.

The Big 12 tournament is this weekend, giving Texas outfielder a Drew Stubbs a chance to make an impression.