Jim Leyland spent part of Wednesday afternoon watching film of Dontrelle Willis’ performance on Tuesday night. The more the Tigers’ manager looked, the more he liked it.
        “I was more impressed with his stuff and his command, his combination of stuff and command was outstanding,” Leyland said Wednesday before batting practice.
        But that was only one game. Now the key becomes: Can Dontrelle do it again?    
        That’s why, despite Willis’ encouraging six-inning, one-hit effort against the Texas  Rangers _ the best he has pitched since becoming a Tiger _ the manager didn’t want to dwell on Dontrelle.
        “I want to stay real low-key on that,” Leyland said. “What happens from here, I’m not smart enough to know. I hope that was the first step in his being the pitcher we want him to be and the pitcher he wants to be.”
        After the way Willis had pitched, Leyland wanted to make sure he came away from Tuesday’s night’s 4-0 Tiger win feeling good about himself. That was why Leyland didn’t hesitate to lift Willis after he walked Andruw Jones with one out in the seventh inning.
        “It was a no-win situation to ask him to go any farther,” the manager explained. “He did all that we needed, and more.”
        Willis’ solid performance gave Leyland an opportunity to use his bullpen the way he wants to use it: Brandon Lyon and/or Bobby Seay in the seventh inning, Joel Zumaya as the set-up man in the eighth, and Fernando Rodney as the closer.
        “That’s my dream, that’s the perfect world,” Leyland said Wednesday. “But it doesn’t always work that way.”
        But with strong starting pitching, that is a sequence we will see more and more frequently.