Maroth, long balls power Tigers

05/03/2006 12:01 AM ET

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

DETROIT -- The year of the finesse pitcher continues, and the Tigers are in the middle of it.While Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez garner national attention as crafty veterans who have changed speeds and hit their spots to five wins apiece, Detroit's two softest-throwing starters lead the team and the American League in victories. Kenny Rogers earned his fourth win on Saturday. Mike Maroth followed on Tuesday with six innings of one-run ball, pitching Detroit to its fifth straight victory with a 4-1 decision over the Royals at Comerica Park.

Maroth and Rogers are in an eight-way tie for the AL wins lead. The group ranges from hard throwers Randy Johnson and Jose Conteras to prototypical crafty left-handers Rogers, Maroth and Gustavo Chacin.

Detroit's starting rotation leads the Major Leagues with 17 wins. Rogers and Maroth have eight of them, tied for second most among starting tandems in the Majors behind Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang.

"Kenny's a guy who's a winner," Magglio Ordonez said. "He has almost 200 wins. When you have a guy like that, it kind of guarantees you at least 15 wins. Maroth won 14 games last year, and we didn't have a good team."

Unlike Rogers, Maroth has never been associated as a winner until now. His moment in history so far was his 20th loss in 2003 as a durable starting pitcher on a bad Tigers team. He earned some vindication last year by going 6-3 down the stretch to finish at .500 for the first time in his career.

As Ordonez pointed out, Maroth was a 14-game winner on a team that wasn't a winner. This year, Maroth's fortunes are going hand-in-hand with the Tigers.

"I think it has a lot to do with the team, the way we're playing," Maroth said. "When you're sitting there watching, and you're seeing the team playing good and winning, it gives you confidence when you go out there. It allows you to just go out there and relax, just go out there and try not to do too much. There's really not as much pressure, playing as good as we are. You kind of just build off that."

Starting against a Royals club that ranks last in the Majors in runs scored, Maroth didn't have to build much. He didn't even have to fill out his arsenal, for that matter. He needed seven pitches to retire the side in order in the third and just six pitches in the fourth on his way to 12 consecutive batters retired. Just one of those batters reached a three-ball count, and Maroth came back from 3-0 to strike out Tony Graffanino.

"I had good command of my pitches," Maroth said. "I actually didn't throw any curveballs. Didn't need it. But the other three pitches that I did throw, I did have real good command. My sinker really had some good movement, and I was going to stick with it."

Maroth lost his shutout bid in the sixth, when Kerry Robinson hit a leadoff single and scored two batters later on Reggie Sanders' double to the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field.

That, with what was then the potential tying run on second base, was when Maroth's pitch counts became longer battles. He fell behind with a 3-1 count to Emil Brown before getting him to swing and miss to move the count full. Brown popped up the deciding pitch harmlessly to second base for the second out.

Maroth pitched around Graffanino, who entered the night 12-for-31 lifetime against him, and instead pitched to Doug Mientkiewicz. He hit a ground ball up the middle that Maroth barely missed. However, the ball hit off the mound and slowed enough for Placido Polanco to field and throw to first for the out.

In so doing, Maroth outdueled former teammate Mark Redman (0-2), who logged a 200-inning season for Detroit in 2002 before being dealt to Florida. Redman's undoing began with Brandon Inge's two-run homer in the third inning, a 436-foot drive to left for his first home run since April 14.

Inge's leadoff single in the sixth started the rally that knocked Redman out of the game. An ensuing walk to Curtis Granderson set up Polanco for a sacrifice bunt to move runners to second and third. Redman intentionally walked Ivan Rodriguez and gave way to Joel Peralta to face Ordonez, who grounded a 1-2 pitch slowly enough to third to send Inge home.

The out was lost in the power display, especially after Craig Monroe's second home run in as many nights completed the scoring. But it wasn't lost on manager Jim Leyland.

"Those are the kind of things that are important," Leyland said. "If he doesn't put the ball in play there, [Carlos] Guillen just missed hitting one the next hitter. We wouldn't come out of that with nothing. All those little things mean a lot."

These starts, meanwhile, mean plenty for a manager who likes to say the only momentum a team has is the next game's starting pitcher. With Maroth's effort, Tigers starting pitchers improved to 10-3 with a 1.87 ERA over their last 14 games. Detroit's starters already entered the night leading the Majors in ERA, hits per nine innings, baserunners per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio. Tigers pitching has allowed just four runs over their last five games, something Detroit last accomplished July 18-22, 1986.

Maroth won't improve the starters' strikeout ratio, but his 1.78 ERA ranks fourth in the Majors and second only to Chicago's Jose Contreras among AL starters. Rogers is fourth at 2.59. The two finesse lefties have allowed just four home runs in 72 innings between them.

"There's a lot of things this team has had going for it," Leyland said. "It's good timing. But if you had to say what's been the biggest factor so far, you'd have to say it's starting pitching."

And for all the talk about young arms, power fastballs and triple-digit radar gun readings, the biggest winners in the rotation so far are the two soft-throwing lefties.