DETROIT -- What more could you ask for? You even got to boo a little bit.
Every game, of course, is the sum of its perfect and imperfect parts.
A three-run home run that offsets a two-run error.
A big catch canceling out walks that load the bases.
When the dust clears, you just hope the team you wanted to win ... won.
Isn't it your fan mantra? Whatever it takes? But that's what made Opening Day on Monday at Comerica Park so clearly special.
The dust never cleared because it never existed. Not a single speck of doubt made the Tigers' 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins a murky one -- where your belief in the eventual outcome was in doubt.
To the Tigers, it was what Ian Kinsler declared it to be "a perfect team win.
"Team speed, team defense, team power -smooth, quick, efficient."
To the fans, even those to whom a day without grumbling isn't complete, it had every element.
Outstanding starting pitching by David Price.
Home runs by J.D. Martinez and Alex Avila -- the latter connecting to left (where he still considers "the majority" of his power to be) for the first time since mid-September 2013.
A double and triple from newcomer Yoenis Cespedes, not to mention his third-inning theft in left of a would-be homer by Minnesota's Kurt Suzuki.
Not headed for as many replays as Cespedes' over-the-fence catch, there was also leaping catch at second base by Kinsler, which kept the Twins hitless long enough for no-hit pools to commence after the fourth.
The hump hitter, Kennys Vargas, eventually broke it up in the fifth. But what's a hump hitter?
He's the guy who represents the 14th out of a possible no-hitter. If he retires the hump hitter, a pitcher has recorded more outs than there are remaining in a nine-inning game.
Get the 14th out, in other words, and you have only 13 left. Instead of up the hill, you're going down.
In any case, that's as far as Price's no-hit bid went, but not nearly as far as his excellence.
That continued until one last Minnesota out was left.
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus had been booed just for checking with Price earlier in the ninth inning, only to become a repeat target when Ausmus switched to Joe Nathan as soon as a save situation actually existed.
In came Nathan with something to prove, namely his reliability as the Tigers' returning closer. Out went Price, who had blanked the Twins on five hits.
It wasn't the most agreeable trade-off, judging by the volume of the public response, but it worked.
And because it worked, it gave the Tigers their final reason to believe "it doesn't get much better than this" -- as special assistant Alan Trammell said of the opener.
Along with what's already been described as having gone right, there was the visible reminder of how much joy with which Jose Iglesias plays the game.
It was evident in how Iglesias moved at shortstop, and how he moved on his two singles and two stolen bases. But also in the sheer physical freedom he now feels after missing all of last year because of shin fractures.
"It was really emotional for me to be out there," Iglesias said. "Every single ball hit to me, every single at-bat, every single play was emotional.
"And I hope every single day feels that way. It's just so much fun to be healthy."
Miguel Cabrera is feeling the same freedom. As he neared first base while hitting into a double play in the fifth, he actually accelerated -- which he could not do at all the second half of last year while running down the line.
"Miggy is moving way better," said first-base coach Omar Vizquel.
"That's the best I've seen him run," added Trammell.
But the fact that Nathan faced Torii Hunter with two runners on, and struck him out to end the game without incident, was the topper.
Within the sequence of pitches that led to Nathan prevailing was a perfect second-pitch two-seamer that enabled Nathan to get ahead 0-2 in the count -- and eventually to strike Hunter out.
"Torii and I know each other so well," said Nathan. "You have to show him something maybe you haven't thrown a lot.
"But the location was exactly what I was looking for."
The perfect pitch at the perfect time ...
Of a nearly perfect opener.
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