The Yankees aren’t expecting miracles when Kei Igawa, the veteran Japanese left-hander, joins them to make a start against the Tigers in the first game of a three-game series in Detroit on Friday night.

Just a good, solid start that includes a lot of strikes would be just fine with Yankees manger Joe Girardi, whose team was swept by the Tigers in a three-game series in New York last week.

“I thought as spring went on, he got better and better,” Girardi said when asked about Igawa on Thursday. “He got better pitching down with his fastball. I thought he got better at attacking the zone.”

I would be really surprised if Kei Igawa pitched a solid game today because I don’t believe he will keep his fastball down but if he does hey that’s great. If nothing else, I expect there to be a lot of comedy. Like a lot of pitchers who rely heavily on strikeouts he gives up a lot of flyballs, so depending on what the outfield looks like tonight it could either be okay or tragicomical.

His line in Scranton so far this year is 3-3/3.86, 39.2IP, 12BB, 40K and batters have a .223 average against him.