Cabrera a smash, but give Galarraga his due

Detroit

Mashing the ball is cool. Mashing the ball is fun. Mashing the ball gets people out of seats screaming and cheering and slurring (well, it was Opening Day).

Miguel Cabrera will lift people out of their seats all summer. He's officially a deadly weapon, the best slugger in baseball, and his line drives should be tracked on radar.

But for fans to keep filling Comerica Park seats, the more-telling performance Friday was by Armando Galarraga, who pitched seven excellent innings, with a career-high eight strikeouts, as the Tigers pounded the Rangers, 15-2.

Yes, people are jiggy with Miggy. But for the Tigers, it's even more important to get gaga over Galarraga.

The fans' early theme this season has been pretty simple: Please, not again. Not another miserable start like the infamous 0-7 in 2008. Not another pitiful bullpen (we're still waiting on that one).

That hit the spot

For Galarraga, and Cabrera too, it's just the opposite: More of the same, fellas. This pitching effort, before an Opening Day crowd of 44,588, was exactly what the Tigers needed to see. Galarraga did it against a Texas offense that mauled Cleveland for 29 runs in three straight victories, and in the process, he stymied an old, ugly story line before it gathered momentum.

The Tigers are 2-3, not 1-4, not 0-7. Bigger than that, after one trip through the rotation, their starters have alternated between brilliant (Galarraga, Edwin Jackson), solid (Zach Miner, Rick Porcello) and strangely rough (Justin Verlander). Encouraging signs, despite the record, considering pitching will decide this team's fate, and most teams' fates.

"That was a stellar pitching performance," manager Jim Leyland said of Galarraga, who threw 97 pitches, 66 for strikes. "That's what a pitcher is supposed to look like, and he did it against one of the best offenses in baseball. He was aggressive, he used all his pitches, just tremendous. That's pitchability."

Hmm. I'm quite familiar with drinkability, but pitchability? Back to that in a moment.

In the meantime, understand the situation the Tigers are in. This Opening Day was unlike others recently. The three-million-fan mania of the past two seasons is over. The economy is still wobbly and season-ticket sales are down about 40 percent. After last year's ridiculous last-place collapse, the Tigers have to earn back the trust, and they have to do it quickly.

Cabrera comes up colossal

Cabrera is doing it with monster mashes, including a grand slam Friday, part of a six-RBI show. He's hitting .611 with three home runs and 10 RBIs -- sheesh, softball numbers.

To be a legitimate contender, the Tigers cannot look like a softball team. I'll be frank here -- with the pitching injuries (Jeremy Bonderman, Joel Zumaya) and that relentlessly shaky bullpen, I say this is a .500 team, 81-81.

To be better than that -- and they can be -- it'll take great seasons from the top three starters, Verlander, Galarraga and Jackson.

Jackson's superb outing in Toronto was wrecked by the bullpen. Nothing was wrecking Galarraga on this day.

"He pounded the strike zone and he worked ahead of people, and when he does that, he's nasty," catcher Gerald Laird said. "With that sinker of his, he was 1-2, 0-2 on everyone. This is what we planned for all year -- good pitching, good defense and an exploding offense."

Galarraga's greatest hits

For the record, Galarraga can be nasty and nice at the same time. He has the friendly, implacable demeanor of a pitcher who doesn't get flustered, even in front of all those fans drinking so much beer, they probably thought they were seeing two or three Galarragas on the mound.

The best Galarraga is the one who throws strikes, keeps hitters off balance and occasionally strays into the mid-90s on the radar. Which brings us back to the pitchability issue, another way of saying Galarraga knows how to keep hitters guessing.

"When they're waiting for a slider, I throw a sinker, and they swing and miss," Galarraga said. "And when they're waiting for a sinker, I throw a slider, and they swing and miss. It's good. I hope it happens all the time."

There's no stinker when his sinker is on. Amid all the questions about this team, don't forget the good elements. Galarraga was 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA last season, an out-of-nowhere revelation, and he's still only 27.

So for him, the challenge is unique. On a team trying to prove it's much different, Galarraga must show he's the same, or even better.

The heat will be on the Tigers if another slow start unfolds. There's no time for the uh-oh-here-they-go-again eye rolls, so Galarraga didn't waste any time at all. He went to the mound and threw a whole bunch of strikes, and the "uh-ohs" were drowned out by the "oohs" and "aahs."

For one festive day, it was the perfect place to start.

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com">bob.wojnowski@detnews.com

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com">bob.wojnowski@detnews.com