Jordan Zimmermann hopes to take hot start to last laugh with Tigers

2:36 AM ET

MINNEAPOLIS — Mike Pelfrey doesn’t mind stirring the pot on occasion. That’s what he had in mind when he called teammate Jordan Zimmermann following a friendly wager the two had placed on an NCAA tournament game during spring training.

Zimmermann had taken the top-ranked University of Virginia, Pelfrey had underdog Syracuse, and so when Virginia blew a 16-point lead and Syracuse pulled off the improbable upset to advance to the Final Four, Pelfrey made sure to ring Zimmermann as quickly as possible, just to get a gauge on how bad he was smarting over the loss.

“It was a complete meltdown,” Pelfrey said, laughing as he recalled the diatribe on the other end of the line. “He was cussing at me, screaming at me, fired up.”

When Pelfrey saw Zimmermann the next day, he was pacified, to a degree, but he was still pissed. The more Pelfrey gets to know his fellow pitcher, the less he is surprised by this reaction.

“That’s the way he gets. He’s a competitor and I don’t think it matters if it’s a friendly game or he’s out there pitching,” Pelfrey said. “He wants to kick your butt.”

The relentless competitor that lies within the 29-year-old Wisconsin native has been evident even in his short tenure as a member of the Tigers. Zimmermann, who signed a five-year, $110 million deal with Detroit this November, has a start so superb that it is downright historic.

He went 24 1/3 innings before surrendering his first run with the Tigers, and even that one was under dubious circumstances. He has collected four wins and surrendered just three runs in his first four outings of the season, the best start any pitcher has had with the Tigers in franchise history.

His ERA heading into Saturday’s game against the Twins — 0.35 — borders on the historic. According to ESPN Stats and Info, only two other pitchers in the divisional era — Fernando Valenzuela and Roger Clemens — have had a better April ERA than Zimmermann.

Ask Zimmermann about that and he’s unlikely to yield anything more than shrug. Self-promotion is not part of this Midwestern farm boy’s arsenal and though he thrives in the spotlight, he certainly does not seek it. When he’s forced to talk about himself, it brings almost a pained grimace, so it’s not exactly surprising he’s doing his best to downplay his early achievements.

“There was some luck involved,” Zimmermann told ESPN.com in a recent conversation. “I was in a bunch of jams and I was able to get out of ’em. It doesn’t always go like that. I know I’ll probably never have a stretch like that again. I’m gonna give up runs, I know that. It’s just limiting the runs. This stretch I had, I just got lucky …

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