• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Indians-Tigers Preview

Apr 9, 2010 - 10:30 PM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Cleveland (2-1) at Detroit (2-1), 1:05 p.m. EDT

Once seemingly on his way to becoming one of the AL's top starters, Jeremy Bonderman has made one start over the last season and a half.

The Detroit Tigers are hoping his first outing of 2010 has many more to follow.

After two years essentially lost to injury, Bonderman makes his season debut against the Cleveland Indians as the AL Central rivals continue their three-game series at Comerica Park.

Bonderman (0-1, 8.71 ERA) won 45 games before his 24th birthday and was part of a rotation that led Detroit (3-1) to the 2006 World Series, but a poor 2007 was just the beginning of a turn for the worse.

The right-hander's promising 2008 came to an end in early June, when he started feeling numbness creeping through his throwing arm. That issue was later discovered to be a condition that restricted blood flow into his shoulder, and surgery to correct a blood clot soon followed.

The recovery took nearly a year, and a poor start June 8 against the Chicago White Sox was the only one Bonderman would make in 2009. He took three months off before coming out of the bullpen seven times toward season's end, and even had his 2010 debut delayed due to a three-game suspension for hitting Minnesota's Delmon Young on Oct. 1.

A free agent after this season, Bonderman is excited to make his first start at Comerica since May 22, 2008.

"It's definitely a place I like to play," Bonderman told the Tigers' official Web site. "It could be my last year here, so it'll be neat to start it here. Just enjoy it, have fun."

Bonderman has always been a hard thrower with little else to turn to, but with his velocity down, he's developed a splitter.

"It's actually a pitch I can use," said Bonderman, 7-9 with a 5.85 ERA in his career against the Indians. "The last two times I've pitched I feel like I've been throwing it for a long time."

Cleveland (2-2) hasn't had much success at the plate this season, batting .234. The Indians hit their first home run Friday in the Tigers' home opener, a solo shot by Travis Hafner, and led 2-0 in the fifth inning.

Detroit cut the lead in half on Austin Jackson's RBI single, then Jhonny Peralta's two-out throwing error allowed three more runs to score as the Tigers went on to win 5-2.

"That's the tough thing about playing in the other team's home opener, there's a big crowd that gets excited when the game starts to shift," Indians catcher Mike Redmond said. "We made one mistake that broke the game open."

Cleveland manager Manny Acta hands the ball to Mitch Talbot, whose only three games of major-league experience came with Tampa Bay in September 2008 - when he compiled an 11.17 ERA. Talbot was involved in the December deal that sent catcher Kelly Shoppach to the Rays.

A right elbow sprain sidetracked Talbot in 2009, but he won 26 combined games at Triple-A Durham the previous two seasons.

"Mitch came to camp, he knew what was at stake, knowing this was a new club and a new coaching staff, and he impressed everybody," Acta told the Indians' official Web site. "He showed an impressive repertoire and showed the ability to maybe go through a lineup three times or more."

Talbot, 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA in spring training, gave up five runs in 2 1-3 innings - walking five - in his lone previous appearance at Detroit.