Time for Tigers to scratch, claw

ST. LOUIS -- After watching Justin Verlander in Game 1 and Joel Zumaya last night, one has to wonder if the Tigers' young arms finally are worn out.

Maybe the adrenaline has started to fade.

They suddenly are looking like rookies.

The city of Detroit is rooting madly, counting on them, and the pressure has to be enormous.

Maybe the Cardinals are fired up about the Kenny Rogers contretemps.

Maybe the week off after the American League Championship Series left the Tigers rusty, and they're having trouble getting back into the flow of things.

Or maybe we're overanalyzing this.

After all, Chris Carpenter, who held the Tigers to three hits over eight innings in St. Louis's 5-0 win in Game 3, is the best pitcher in the National League over the past two seasons.

Still, the Tigers, who were supposed to be swept by the Yankees then were supposed to sweep the Cardinals, this morning look overwhelmed, overmatched, and needing to regroup in a hurry.

They are down, 2-1, to a team that won 83 games.

They are down to a team that one major league manager recently called, "the worst team I'd seen all year in September."

What has happened to Pudge Rodriguez?

Granted, his primary value is behind the plate, not at it. He is to the Tigers what Jason Varitek is to the Red Sox. But holy Mendoza. Rodriguez went 0 for 3 last night and is now hitless in his last 23 at-bats.

Rodriguez hit .349 over his last 22 regular-season games and threw out 19 of the last 35 runners who attempted to steal. He's a proven veteran with a World Series ring, but he has absolutely no clue at the plate right now.

"What can I do?" Rodriguez snapped after the game. "I'm swinging at bad pitches. I'm trying to regroup myself. I'm putting myself out there and swinging at bad pitches. I need to get back in the right habits. I don't have good habits right now."

Zumaya experienced a sore right wrist after Game 1 of the ALCS, but he was deemed ready for the World Series. He got two clean outs to end the sixth, but created a mess in the seventh.

With the Tigers trailing, 2-0, Zumaya walked the first two batters. He then got Albert Pujols to hit a comebacker, but Zumaya threw errantly past Brandon Inge at third, allowing both runners to score.

The power pitcher got the power hitter to bounce the ball back to him. And he throws the ball away.

"Hopefully I got that one out of my system and I can forget that one because I know our team is going to need me," said Zumaya. "I'm just [ticked] off I gave them two runs right there. It's a ground ball hit right to me. I have a chance for a double play. I saw Brandon move toward the bag and I crank one up in the seats."

Was he sitting too long after the sixth inning?

"It doesn't make a difference if I was sitting," Zumaya said. "I was on the bench right next to a heater. It had nothing to do with that. I'm a lot better than that."

Rodriguez, Placido Polanco, and Curtis Granderson are 0 for 34 in three games. The Tigers are as cold as the weather. You can understand getting shut down by Carpenter, a superb pitcher. But in a seven-game series, prolonged slumps can be fatal. It's tough to make rookie mistakes and see veterans not carrying their weight.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland knows he can't wait too long for hitters to come out of slumps.

"I'm going to sleep on it," Leyland said. "I'm not sure who's going to play tomorrow. I don't know what it's going to look like and I'm certainly not going to talk about that."

Three years from now, Zumaya will look upon this as a learning experience. But last night he committed a huge error. He and the Tigers are learning that you have to pitch well, have timely hitting, and play defense to win in the postseason.

They did all of those things against New York and Oakland. And even though they're down, 2-1, there's plenty of time for the Tigers to turn it around.

"Basically what this means is the Cardinals are up, 2-1," Leyland said. "If we don't swing the bats better they'll be up, 3-1. That's as simple as it is. But at the same time, I think we'll swing the bats better. We're certainly not conceding anything. It's a World Series atmosphere and we need to grind it out."

Baseball finalizes its labor deal through 2011