Upbeat Leyland keeps the faith

If the Detroit Tigers were frustrated after a five-game losing streak, they were good at hiding it, and if manager Jim Leyland was worried that his team was in a tailspin, he should teach classes in stress management.

In the visitors' clubhouse, it was all laughter and jokes before last night's win as the Tigers prepared for the first of three at Fenway Park. Any concern after losing two games to Minnesota and being swept by the White Sox -- who gained 4 1/2 games on Detroit in the American League Central -- seemed minimal.

``I think it was about [a month] ago," Leyland said, ``that the White Sox lost 8 of 10, or 9 of 13, or 12 of 14, or something like that, and everyone forgets that that's how we got the [10-game] lead. Well, you know that's not going to happen to them forever. So their [slump] is over with, and our little streak just happened right now, so it's the latest thing to talk about.

``If one of these happened in April or May, you don't talk anything about it. But now because we're getting closer to crunch time and everything, and rightfully so, people talk about it a little bit more.

``You're going to hear everything. From a manager's standpoint, you're going to hear, `Oh the Tigers are going to hang on, they're going to win.' `The Tigers are choking,' blah, blah, blah. `They don't know what to do, they got too many young guys who haven't been in this situation.'

``You're going to hear all this, and what does it mean? It doesn't mean anything. What it means is that these guys have to go out, between the lines, play the games, and see if we're good enough."

So far, they've been more than good enough. Just as a reminder, this team went 43-119 in 2003. This year, they've maintained the best record in baseball: They are 77-41 after ending that skid with a 7-4 win last night.

It might be noted that the Tigers faced a stout run of pitching during that skid: Francisco Liriano, Brad Radke, and Johan Santana for Minnesota, and Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, and Freddy Garcia for Chicago. In Boston, they got Josh Beckett last night and now face Curt Schilling and David Wells.

But Leyland wasn't daunted.

``I'm glad to be here tonight, and I'd be glad to be here whether we were 10 out or 10 ahead," Leyland said. ``It's a great place."

Catcher Ivan Rodriguez was given the night off last night after an 0-for-12 series against the White Sox. Leyland said Rodriguez, who was thrown out of Sunday's game after disputing a called strike, has been ``fighting himself" at the plate. Yesterday, Rodriguez said, what happened to him and his team in Chicago is just baseball.

``We're going to have two very tough weeks coming up," Rodriguez said. ``We've got Boston, and then the Rangers, and then we have Toronto. We have to play. The atmosphere on the team is very positive. We're still in first place, but we can't think about that.

``We have to think about playing the game hard, and just put the Chicago series behind us and concentrate on the games here in Boston, and keep playing."