DETROIT _ After a 24-hour delay, Detroit's local holiday that is Opening Day began at 1:11 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
It was 37 degrees. Tigers right-hander Jordan Zimmermann _ a Wisconsinite _ was wearing short sleeves.
What transpired over the next few hours was the earliest look at why this team _ inexperienced, pitching-deprived and lacking talent _ is predicted to finish with many more losses than wins.
Zimmermann was solid. The Tigers swung the bats well enough. And Miguel Cabrera, the future Hall of Famer, looks fully healthy.
But oh, that bullpen.
In the first game of the 2018 season, the Tigers' bullpen blew their first lead.
But even the sloppiest of season openers couldn't keep the Tigers down on this day. Trailing by four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, facing Pirates' lefty closer Felipe Rivero, the team rallied to tie the game when James McCann, and then Dixon Machado, hit two-run doubles.
An inning later, it looked like JaCoby Jones hit a walk-off single to score Nick Castellanos, but after video review, umpires overturned the call, infuriating the Comerica Park crowd and manager Ron Gardenhire alike. In his first game with the Tigers, he was ejected.
The drama quelled for two more innings, until Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco quashed it for good.
Polanco's three-run home run off Alex Wilson would hold: The Tigers lost, 13-10, in the longest Opening Day in team history. It took five hours and 27 minutes.
Though Wilson pitched admirably, throwing 32/3 innings, it could not make up for the bullpen opening up the game in the first place.
In the final three innings of regulation, the bullpen allowed four runs, equaling that of Zimmermann in six innings. Zimmermann's strong start went south in the fourth inning _ keyed by a single that hit the lip of the grass and bounced past second baseman Dixon Machado _ but the Tigers clawed their way back in the seventh.
Cabrera woke up the announced sold-out crowd in the seventh with a two-run double to tie the game and Nick Castellanos drove him home one batter later. The Tigers scored four runs to end the seventh inning with a 6-4 lead.
That late lead did not survive, though. Righty Drew VerHagen, tasked with the eighth inning, allowed a single and walk. Lefty Daniel Stumpf walked a lefty and then surrendered an RBI double and sacrifice fly to tie the game.
In the ninth, Pirates outfielder Starling Marte _ Shane Greene's first batter faced _ tripled off Castellanos' outstretched glove in right field. Marte scored on a Francisco Cervelli single past a drawn-in infield. A passed ball later in the inning scored another run. An error scored two more.
It was the kind of game the Tigers will need to win if they hope to win more than expected. Nothing was outstanding, not even Zimmermann, who retired 10 straight batters after allowing a double to open the game. But the Tigers hung around long enough, with a good enough chance to win, and squandered the opportunity.
Zimmermann's bad inning came in the fourth, allowing four runs on three hits. The biggest was a two-run double to center field by Francisco Cervelli. Zimmermann threw six innings, allowing four runs on six hits. He struck out eight batters _ his highest total since May 16, 2016 _ and walked none.
