TIGERS Maroth on the mound tonight, has 19 losses

The last pitcher to do it, Brian Kingman, will be in attendance.
DETROIT (AP) -- The Detroit Tigers have already drawn more attention for their ineptitude this season than they would like, and they know it's only about to get worse.
All eyes will be on left-hander Mike Maroth in Toronto tonight, when he could become the first major league pitcher in 23 years to lose 20 games in a season.
"To people in baseball, this isn't that big a deal," Tigers manager Alan Trammell said. "It is the media that is paying so much attention to what is happening with Mike."
Tell that to quirky Brian Kingman, who -- believe it or not -- wants to remain baseball's last 20-game loser. Kingman, who went 8-20 for Oakland in 1980, is expected to attend the game.
"Obviously, we won't welcome him into the clubhouse -- we don't need those kind of distractions," Trammell said. "But if he wants to follow Mike around, he can do that."
When Maroth already had 10 losses by June 1, Kingman said he would break out the voodoo dolls if he got up to 18 or 19.
"He doesn't have to win," Kingman said back then, "he just has to stop losing."
No big deal
Like his manager, Maroth (6-19) is trying to downplay the significance of losing 20, choosing to think of it as a one-time thing.
"I'm going to be pitching for a long time," he said. "Hopefully, this is a year that I will never have to go through again and I believe that I won't.
"If you look at the overall team record, it's been a bad year for the whole team. You just have to get through it so that we can move forward."
The punchless Tigers (37-102) need at least six wins in their final 23 games to avoid matching the post-1900 record of 120 losses in a season, set by the 1962 New York Mets.
Maroth's teammates, though, know all the attention on his own struggles is getting to him.
"You can tell that this is wearing him down," catcher Brandon Inge said. "He's drained, and that's perfectly understandable. He doesn't deserve this."
Kaline has respect
Hall of Famer Al Kaline, an assistant to Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, played with the last Tigers pitcher to lose 20 games -- Mickey Lolich in 1974 -- and has plenty of respect for Maroth.
"You've got to be a pretty good pitcher to lose 20 games, because they have to keep giving you the ball," Kaline said. "Mike has done a decent job this year -- he lost a lot of games early in the year when we weren't scoring a lot of runs."
Maroth has a 5.42 ERA in 28 starts. He's trying to focus on the positives he can take out of this season.
"The biggest thing is just to get through it," he said. "Anytime you go through a struggle and you make it through, you always have more confidence because you can say, 'Man, I made it through.' So, just getting through the year alone will be a good thing."
First, though, Maroth has to handle tonight.
"I wish it wasn't going to be a circus, but I know it will," he said. "That's just something I have to deal with."