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On Monday night, as the Tigers (14-19) lost their fourth in a row, it looked like a lot of other lost evenings. They coaxed eight walks in five innings from Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka but could push across only one run. They wound up leaving 11 aboard.
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"I don't know if it's going to work or not," Leyland said. "I do know that every once in a while you need to send a message that this is about production. That's what we're all here for -- the manager, the coaches, we're all included in that."
The Tigers thought they finally had found the proper combinations last week in New York as they completed their first three-game sweep of the Yankees since Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich were in the rotation.
Then they went to Minnesota, got hammered, and here we were.
"One thing I want to make perfectly clear," an obviously agitated Leyland said in a staccato-style briefing before the game (punctuating the end of many answers with a terse "next question"). "Jacque Jones is not the reason we're four games under .500. He's nothing but a class individual.
"Sometimes your moves just fit this way or that way. It could have been somebody else. In no way, shape or form is anybody pointing fingers at Jacque Jones. That would be totally unfair."
But as Leyland noted, it's his job and Dombrowski's job to figure this thing out.
Sometimes that involves leafing through the employee suggestion box.
It was Sheffield who first approached hitting coach Andy Van Slyke a few days ago with the suggestion that perhaps part of the solution to get his anemic bat going might be to get his butt off the bench during the long stretches between his at-bats.
The chatter went from Van Slyke to Dombrowski to Leyland, who had a long talk with Sheffield on Sunday in Minnesota.
"If having Gary Sheffield in the field concentrating on every pitch helps him swing the bat, we're going to do that," Leyland said.
Then, Leyland anticipated the barrage of questions that was sure to follow by answering before they were asked.
"He's healthy now," Leyland said. "If he gets hurt, it happens."
You wonder how many more parachutes these Tigers have left before the nightly landings become softer. Only two weeks ago, the skipper shifted Carlos Guillen from first base to third and Miguel Cabrera from third to first in a move designed to tighten up a worrisome defense.
Cabrera had made seven errors at third base, and Guillen already has made four since he has been moved to third. There is some thinking that with Jones gone and Sheffield in the outfield, the Tigers' eventual look will feature Guillen at DH and Brandon Inge at third. If it's defense you want, that's their best alignment. However, that also effectively would neuter one of the savviest players in the lineup. Guillen can contribute only so much if he's not in the field.
But that's the weird thing about all of this attention the Tigers are paying to their lineup. There are legitimate questions surrounding their pitching staff (Nate Robertson alone is getting pitching coach Chuck Hernandez killed on the local sports talk radio), there is little speed and the Tigers' defense is nowhere close to airtight (11th in the AL as this monster homestand opens).
Yet, after Leyland's comments in the Twin Cities, the Tigers' lineup Monday was the most anticipated thing in Detroit since a new Supremes record back in the day.
The results were eye-popping, too: Catcher Pudge Rodriguez (.248) was batting ninth for the first time since May 6, 1992. Shortstop Edgar Renteria was in the eight hole for the first time since June 23, 1996. Magglio Ordonez was the DH.
And, of course, there was Sheffield, trotting out to left, with all of those questions right behind.
Can his legs hold up?
Will his shoulder hold up?
