Blue Jays-Tigers: Rios, McGowan Excel, but Frank Thomas Is the Story

Alex Rios and Dustin McGowan were the heroes for the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, but the big story was DH Frank Thomas and his soon-to-decrease playing time.

Rios homered in the first inning, McGowan allowed two runs over seven innings for his first victory of the season, and the Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 at Rogers Centre on Saturday afternoon.

It was more of the same for the 6-12 Tigers, the worst team in the American League.

The Tigers couldn't score enough runs once again. They have lost all 10 games this season when scoring four runs or fewer, and today their pitching let them down again.

Detroit righty Jeremy Bonderman walked six batters in only five innings, including a bases-loaded free pass in the second, and he fell to 1-2 this season.

The Tigers have the worst pitching in all of baseball, entering the game with a major-league high 5.88 team ERA, much worse than the NL's Florida Marlins (5.22).

While Saturday's result lowered that ugly ERA, it was still another defeat.

The Blue Jays' final run came in the fifth, thanks to Miguel Cabrera's fifth error of the season. The Tiger third baseman muffed Vernon Wells' grounder to allow Aaron Hill to score from second and make the score 3-1.

The victory for the Blue Jays was their first at home in almost two weeks. Their last home win completed the three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox from April 4-6.  The Jays ended an ugly six-game slide at Rogers Centre.

Toronto was swept at home by both the Oakland A's (three games) and Texas Rangers (two games) before dropping an 8-4 decision to the Tigers in the first game of the four-game series Friday night.

Meanwhile, the big story about the Blue Jays' Frank Thomas was that he was benched in favor of left-handed hitting Matt Stairs, who went 2-for-3 with a run scored in Thomas's usual No. 5 spot in the lineup against Detroit.

Thomas reportedly will see even less playing time in the immediate future.

Thomas, who has 516 lifetime home runs, is mired in a 4-for-35 slump and is batting just .167 with three dingers and 11 RBI in 60 at-bats this season. Stairs is currently batting .333 with a homer and three RBI in 42 at-bats.

Thomas reportedly didn't shake hands with his teammates after Saturday's contest and didn't stick around to speak to reporters, though he did express his anger prior to the game.

The Blue Jays denied that the decision to sit Thomas was due to the $10 million option for next season in his contract, which kicks in if the veteran DH reaches 376 plate appearances in 2008.

Is the benching of Thomas justified? After all, Thomas has been slumping (0-for-13), as had the Blue Jays.

However, all Thomas has to do is look over at the visitors' dugout and see that Tigers veteran Gary Sheffield, hitting just .192 this year, is continuing to be in the Detroit lineup.

Jason Giambi is hitting .116 with two homers for the New York Yankees, and of course the first baseman/DH still has a job.

And wasn't David Ortiz in Boston struggling too? The Red Sox DH cracked a grand slam on Friday night in Boston's 11-3 win over the Rangers, but is batting just .134. Ortiz was hitting a paltry .070 after the Red Sox-Yankees series last weekend.

I am indifferent as to whether or not the "Big Hurt" should remain in the everyday lineup, and am in no way suggesting Thomas is in the same caliber at this point of his career as Ortiz.

And what can the Jays do when they do have an option in Stairs, who is taking advantage of his playing time?

We'll have to see exactly what Toronto manager John Gibbons intends to do with his platoon of Thomas and Stairs as the Blue Jays try to stay in contention in the AL East.