Last week, Armando Galarraga tried throwing to live hitters between starts, something that big league pitchers rarely do. How much that helped is subject to debate.
        Galarraga said Sunday that he believes he was “90 percent better” in his last start on Saturday night against Colorado (5 1/2 innings, four runs, six hits) than he was in his previous two starts.
        Jim Leyland’s evaluation of Galarraga’s improvement was considerably more conservative.
        “He showed some improvement at some points,” the Tigers manager said, with emphasis on the word ‘some.’
        “But he’s not where he needs to be,” Leyland declared.
        That has been obvious.
        So what does Galarraga, who has now lost four in a row, need to do before his next start, Thursday night in Baltimore?
        “I don’t know the answer to that,” Leyland admitted.
        The Tigers believe part of Galarraga’s problem stems from the fact that he is now unintentionally varying the position of his arm from pitch to pitch. Leyland said he was “suspicious” Galarraga might be feeling some pain in his arm and subconsciously compensating for it. “But that’s not the case,” the manager said.   
        Galarraga believes his troubles during the past month may be more mental than mechanical.
        “My last game, I went out there thinking, ‘Throw your best stuff. Throw your best stuff,’ ” Galarraga explained. “And my best stuff is sinker, slider.
        “I’m working on my sinker. I’m working on my slider. I can’t give up the big inning when they get five or six runs. I can’t have five innings of zeroes and then give up five runs in one inning.”
        In Galarraga’s last start, he doled out the runs one at a time. The problem was, he gave up one too many.
        When Galarraga fell behind Todd Helton, 3-0, leading off the sixth inning, his current lack of confidence in his bread-and-butter sinker showed.
        “I’m thinking, ‘Don’t walk him,’ ” the pitcher explained. “I just wanted to throw a fastball over for a strike. If I could get one strike on him, then I could throw my sinker.”
        Unfortunately for Galarraga, Helton wasn’t taking. He jumped on the fastball, which was up and over the plate, and clobbered it for what turned out to be the game-winning home run.
        Last season, Galarraga probably would have thrown his sinker in that situation and Helton probably would have swung and missed.
        In the first 24 innings that Galarraga pitched this season, he surrendered just one home run. In his last 23 innings, he has served up eight HRs.
        “I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I’ll be happy,” Galarraga admitted. “Sometimes you try to change your mechanics real quick and everything gets confused. I’m just trying to get my  rhythm back. I’m trying to get my sinker back. And I believe I’m going to get it.”
        If not, Galarraga may find himself out of the starting rotation when Jeremy Bonderman comes back and the Tigers return home next month.