Grrrr, as the Tigers say. All of a sudden the White Sox are closer to third place than first.
And here in hockey/basketball land, they are beginning to get serious about the possibility of Detroit turning into Baseball Town USA.
I just heard a Tiger say he was inspired against the Sox by his manager telling the team, “We’re better than that team.”
Well, maybe they are. And maybe Jim Leyland did say it, though according to man law, it is the kind of thing you say only in private, never in public.
I was standing at the locker of Joel Zumaya, a 21-year-old pitcher dressed in a San Diego Chargers jersey. This kid can hum a ball 102 m.p.h., which is why he plays baseball instead of football.
Zumaya was discussing the last ball he threw Thursday in a 2-1 Tigers victory. It caused Joe Crede to swing, miss and stare at Zumaya as the pitcher spun on the mound, pumped a fist and did everything but a Michael Jackson moonwalk.
“I don’t really care what anybody says. It’s just the way I am,” Zumaya said. “I don’t mean the White Sox any disrespect. If he wants to look at me like that, that’s his problem.”
A little attitude? Good. It could make these next few weeks that much more fun.
(Crede was asked for his opinion of Zumaya’s mound act, but all he had to say on that subject was: “Dumb question. Next?”)
Meantime, on top of that, Zumaya said Leyland motivated his Tigers before this series by telling them, “We’re better than that team. Go right at ’em.”
A Detroit columnist and I wanted to be sure we had heard the young pitcher correctly, so we asked Zumaya again, and he repeated it.
Leyland said no such thing after the game, reiterating his “utmost respect” for the Sox and paying them nothing but compliments for the record, as he has all week.
As for opening a 5 1/2-game advantage on the defending World Series champs in the standings, Leyland remained properly humble.
“We’re not the ’61 Yankees,” he said, which was manager-speak for don’t get carried away with how great these Tigers are just yet. “But am I happy? I’m happy as hell.”
They even got the better of Chicago’s best pitcher, Jose Contreras.
“Well, I wouldn’t say we exactly knocked him around,” Leyland said. “We didn’t pound the [stuffing] out of him.”
The guys from the Motor City sure did put the Sox a little farther in their rearview mirror.
They did it with good, hard baseball, like Marcus Thames’ barrel-roll slide that took out Tadahito Iguchi, killed a double play and kept a rally alive.
“He was like a [sitting] duck sitting out there,” Thames said. “I had to get him. I don’t want to hurt the guy. But when he sees me coming down at him, I’m sure he opened his eyes pretty big.”
Also coming through for the Tigers was 41-year-old left-hander Kenny Rogers, who weathered hot weather for six innings before he ran out of gas.
“He’s not up for Rookie of the Year anymore,” Leyland quipped, “so I thought he had had enough.”
Rogers also survived a line drive off Brian Anderson’s bat that came right at him. What saved him?
“His `scared’ muscle,” Leyland joked. “It hit him in the glove. It would have hit him in the face. That would not have been a pretty sight.”
Rogers was replaced by Zumaya, who had what Leyland described as “electric stuff.”
After that, Todd Jones polished off the Sox, who once had the Tigers looking over their shoulders at them but now are looking over their own shoulders at the Minnesota Twins, who are just four games behind them.
“We did win two out of the three,” Thames said. “We definitely have the talent. They have the talent, too, and Minnesota has the talent. It’s going to be a dogfight.”
And whether the Tigers privately do believe they are superior to the Sox or don’t think so, the fact of the matter is this:
They are right now.
They have been all year.
It doesn’t mean a thing at this moment which team won the 2005 World Series.
Are you asking which team is the best team in baseball in 2006?
Dumb question.
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mikedowney@tribune.com
