Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland watches from the dugout last night along with former Pirate shortstop Rafael Belliard. Click photo for larger image.

Jim Leyland doesn't need many words to explain why his Detroit team has been so successful this season.

In fact, one word will do.

"Pitching," Leyland said.

To wit ...

Entering their game against the Pirates last night, the Tigers had:

A major league-leading 3.45 team earned run average.

A major league-leading 11 shutouts, including shutouts in the final two games of their recent three-game sweep of Houston.

A stretch of 20 consecutive scoreless innings -- their third streak of 20-plus consecutive scoreless innings this season.

Twelve wins when they scored three runs or fewer.

A starting rotation with a 3.39 ERA and 44 of the team's 54 wins.

And two 10-game winners -- Kenny Rogers and rookie Justin Verlander.

"Our pitching's done an excellent job," Leyland said. "We've played good. We've pitched outstanding."

The mastermind of the Tigers' staff is pitching coach Chuck Hernandez, the only non-former Pirate on Leyland's staff.

"He's been tremendous," Leyland said of the former Tampa Bay pitching coach. "He's been a godsend, that guy. He's good. He's really good.

"He's just got a demeanor about him. He knows how to prepare a pitcher with a game plan. He knows how to make adjustments during the game. He's an even-keel guy. He knows how to work them between starts. He knows what to say to them. He knows how to be a good buffer between me and the pitchers. He's good."

Rogers, signed last winter for two years and $16 million, lends a veteran presence to a rotation that includes Verlander, 23, Jeremy Bonderman, 23, Nate Robertson, 28, and, for now, Zach Miner, 24.

Miner's filling in for Mike Maroth, 28, who's on the disabled list with elbow problems.

Rogers has been a good leader by example with his 10 wins this season and 200 victories in his career.

No doubt, too, Rogers has passed along tips to his younger counterparts.

"Everybody makes this point about what he's done for the other pitchers," Leyland said. "I'm sure he's done some stuff, but we got him because he's a good pitcher. That's why we got him."

One of the few times the Tigers' pitching didn't hold up was in a 10-2 loss to Cleveland in Detroit April 17.

That defeat, coming just before the Tigers headed to the West Coast, produced Leyland's only angry team meeting.

It was classic Leyland -- yelling, screaming, pacing, leaving the room, coming back into the room. In short, the kind of team meeting he had once or twice almost every season he managed the Pirates.

"One of the guys was going to get up and [Lloyd McClendon] said, 'Sit down. He's not done. He'll be back. Don't move,' " Leyland said, laughing now about that meeting.

"They played hard that day. It wasn't that," Leyland said. "It was just that it was like, 'Well, we're behind. I'm going to hit a cheap home run.' We kept popping balls up to the outfield.

"I said, 'That's just not going to be tolerated. We don't play the game that way.' "

And Leyland made his point.

"I don't think you ever plan those things. You just react," Leyland said. "You know, every once in a while, you say, 'Shut the doors. I've seen enough of this [act].' It wasn't pretty."

The Tigers, duly chastised, went 6-3 on their trip to Oakland, Seattle and Anaheim. That made their record 13-9.

"But I don't think that [meeting] had [anything] to do with it," Leyland said. "You just have to do what you feel. That's what managing is. You get a feel for something -- good or bad -- and you have to handle it. I wasn't just going to let it slide."

As he did too often with the Colorado Rockies in 1999, a season in which Leyland admits he was burned out. He stepped down after that season.

"Since Colorado, he's energized a lot more," Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont said. "I think that's probably one of the big reasons he quit. He just didn't feel like he had the energy."

He does now.

"I knew he was going to be a no-nonsense guy when he came in here," former Pirates prospect Chris Shelton said of Leyland. "I knew that he ran a pretty tight ship and expected things to get done the right way.

"It's been an absolute joy to play for him. He keeps things intact, but he has fun with us. He keeps things light as well. It's fun to play for him. He's been an outstanding addition."