Published: April 02, 2008 09:47 am         

Jeff Peek: Game doesn't define season -- or does it?

Possibilities. We saw both the good and the bad for the Detroit Tigers in Monday's season-opening loss to the Kansas City Royals.

The good is obvious: this team can hit. There were plenty of runners on base Monday, especially early, and there will be plenty of runners on throughout the season.

Some baseball experts believe the Tigers will become one of the few teams in major league history to score 1,000 runs in a single season. That's why, when Carlos Guillen scored Detroit's first run on Edgar Renteria's RBI single in the second inning, one reporter in the press box announced: "One down, 999 to go."

Pitchers won't be able to work around any spot in the batting order, not even the ninth spot.

Two cases in point:

With one out and Guillen standing at second following his second-inning double, Royals' starter Gil Meche failed to punch out the weakest hitter in the lineup, Brandon Inge. Inge walked, bringing up the top of the order, and Renteria made him pay for it.

Later, with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Meche had Gary Sheffield down 0-2, but also failed to put him away. Sheffield, who has one of the best batting eyes in baseball, worked a walk for run No. 2.

The fact that the Tigers left 10 runners aboard, including the tying run at third with one out in the bottom of the 11th, is an aberration.

Renteria struck out and Placido Polanco grounded out to end it, but don't expect that to happen often.

Polanco, who went 0-for-6 -- 0-for-6! -- was asked how often he though Renteria would deliver in that situation.

Polanco's answer: "99.9 percent of the time."

He could have also been speaking about himself.

On the other side of the coin is the bullpen, which has become the media's favorite whipping boy. With all due respect to Todd Jones, who seems to effectively use criticism as a motivator, it's easy to see why the Detroit's relievers scare the fans and media silly.

Until Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney get healthy -- and people are beginning to doubt if either will ever be reliable -- the Tigers bullpen is left with no-names or guys with short track records.

When manager Jim Leyland has to bring in Jason Grilli with the game on the line in the seventh inning, like he did on Monday, few outside the Tigers organization believe positive things are going to happen.

Grilli, by the way, gave up a game-tying single to John Buck on an 0-2 count.

You can't blame people for how they feel, and -- perhaps outside of Bobby Seay -- there isn't one Detroit reliever who doesn't make fans feel uneasy when he takes the mound.

So we're all left hoping that the Tigers' super-charged offense can overcome whatever trouble befalls the pitching staff.

Unfortunately, 139 years of professional baseball history tells us that that never works.