Zumaya Makes Seventh Innings Fun

It may have been one of the most anticipated seventh innings around here in quite some time. In fact, I'd call it Todd Jones' opening act.

When 21 year-old righthander Joel Zumaya took the mound for the Tigers yesterday in their Opening Day, 3-1 victory over Kansas City, you could just sense eyeballs and ears tuning themselves in a little more intently all over Metro Detroit. This was, after all, the first chance many folks got to see Zumaya -- the kid who, along with starter Justin Verlander, was all the rage in spring training for his velocity, location, and control.

Zumaya pitched the seventh and eighth innings, scorelessly, and helped preserve Kenny Rogers' victory. For now, the closer is Fernando Rodney, but when Jones returns from the DL, it will be he that Zumaya will setup. Oh, there'll be others in those innings, but it's Zumaya that'll be the most fun to watch. Unless you're an opposing hitter.

"He's throwing 100 miles an hour -- in the dark," the Royals' Doug Mientkiewicz said afterward, referring to Zumaya throwing in the late afternoon shadows. "It's hard enough to hit 100, let alone when you can't see it.

"Start your swing, use the Jedi mind trick, and hope the ball hits the bat."

And that's coming from the only guy who got a hit off the kid. Can you imagine what Reggie Sanders and Emil Brown -- who both struck out -- would have said?

First, Zumaya simply looks like a beast. He's barrel chested and has that scruffy facial hair on his chin and he looks like the grownup version of the kid who would shake you down for your lunch money in sixth grade. He's actually sweet as pie, but on the mound he has that Sopranos thing going on.

And, of course, there's that 100-mph fastball. Although, on occasion, Zumaya eased up on the Royals and only threw it about 98.

Switching from Rogers' carefully located and plotted array of pitches that range from 70-85 mph to Zumaya's horizontal bottle rockets should almost have been outlawed against the sad-sack Royals. But it won't just be the league's worst team that Zumaya will bedevil when all is said and done. The Tigers haven't had this kind of thing in a lonnnnng time: A young stud who can come in and wreak havoc on the opposing lineup in the seventh and/or eighth innings so the stage can be turned over to the closer.

What makes Zumaya particularly nasty is his control and location. He's not just chucking it up there to see how high he can make the radar gun go -- no sir. He has some breaking stuff, and he knows how to use it, and he misses low.

I have been wont to make fun of today's starting pitchers, who are only asked to go six innings most games and call it a day, in this modern age of bullpen-by-committee. But if Zumaya plans on performing like he did yesterday, I just might be yelling for manager Jim Leyland to yank the starter like a bad opening act stand-up comic. For maybe it's Zumaya who'll be the main act, and the starter the opener. The closer can be the movie they play at the drive-in for the second time that night.

Regardless, it sure was fun to watch Joel Zumaya terrorize Royals hitters yesterday in that shadow darkness. The kid throws 100 mph -- and that's tough to hit, like Mientkiewicz said, even when you CAN see it.

Like Reggie Jackson once said about Tom Seaver, "Blind people come to the ballpark to hear him pitch."

Six and out, starters!