Leyland's lefty-heavy lineup pays off

Managers, like everyone, have good days and bad days -- sometimes on the same day.

Jim Leyland played the odds Friday night and saw it pay off for him in a 10-2 Detroit Tigers victory over the Cleveland Indians.

He did something he hasn't done with this Tigers team -- lining up five left-handed hitters against Indians right-hander Justin Masterson -- because it would leave Detroit very vulnerable to a sudden early switch to a left-handed reliever.

The bad, though, came before the game when Leyland had to cut one of the game's good guys, Don Kelly, because a more valuable player, Andy Dirks, was returning from a rehab assignment.

One candidate, left-handed-hitting Quintin Berry, has been too impressive to be sent down. Another candidate, Ryan Raburn, has been a sub-.200 hitter, but he bats right-handed, giving Leyland's bench more balance.

Some of the sting of that move was taken away by the win.

"I loaded the lineup with as many lefties as I could," Leyland said, "because they hit .285 against Masterson and he's a slinger from down here. His ball runs, so I played as many lefties (as I could).

"Doesn't mean they're going to get any hits, doesn't mean they're going to be successful. But if you believe in numbers -- and I do, to an extent -- to an extent, the numbers tell you you should play lefties.

"You really don't hit-and-run with Jhonny Peralta, and I might bunt or hit-and-run or something with (Ramon) Santiago.

"So I don't come here and just write down names, and say, 'That's it.' I try to have a thought process.

"I don't really care if people disagree with it -- it's fine if they disagree, as long as they know you have a thought process. It's not just helter-skelter, come pick the names out of a hat."