Questions for Tuesday’s Game

We’re 3-7 now, with Ordonez possibly headed for the DL and two more games against the pennant-winning Rangers left. We won’t hit .500 by the end of this series, but there are a couple of very important questions that we’ll be on the way to answering after today’s game.

1. Did we sign the same Brad Penny that pitched for the Red Sox? Penny’s ERA in 24 games for Boston was 5.61. His ERA over the rest of his career (all in the NL) was 3.99. Over two starts for us he’s given up 12 runs in 9 2/3. Bad Penny is no better than Armando Galarraga, and possibly worse.

2. Can the Tigers lineup hit good lefties? We didn’t do much against C.C. Sabathia or Bruce Chen, so this seems to be a valid question. The first part of the question, will Leyland employ a platoon switch, has been answered. Avila and Rhymes are out, Wells and Santiago are in. The second part of the question is whether non-Cabrera righties are going to hit anyone who’s on his game…