JUPITER, Fla. -- The Tigers like Josh Zeid but feel he needs a little extra attention right now.
Giving up one run on one hit while walking two in an inning and taking the 1-0 loss Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals is hardly a disaster.
Nor is Zeid's 5.40 ERA this spring.
Tigers catcher Brad Ausmus has known Zeid since he managed him on Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic in 2012.
"His command's been off," Ausmus said. "When he's on the rubber, he's got a lot of energy and sometimes he has to rein that in. Josh tends to get out in front. He's so antsy on the mound that I think his arm ends up dragging and he has trouble with his command. He's got to learn to harness that energy and use it rather than letting it take over his delivery."
Pitching coach Jeff Jones thinks Zeid got into some bad habits last year when trying to pitch with stress fractures in both of his feet.
Zeid needed surgery on both of his feet.
"We're in the bullpen pretty much every day working on his delivery a little bit," Jones said. "I think I'm going to take him back to the bullpen and get a couple of side sessions with him. You can't really say it's his fault. It's not very often you have a guy that has stress fractures in his feet and tries to pitch with it. We'll get him figured out."
Jones said Zeid would not pitch in a game for at least a couple of days while they try to work through some things in the bullpen.
After playing shortstop in back-to-back games, Jose Iglesias was asked if everything was good.
"Buenisimo," Iglesias said, and did a little dance to prove just how good he felt.
Iglesias played six innings at shortstop Sunday against the Miami Marlins and three innings at short Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Iglesias will not play Tuesday at home against the Washington Nationals but will play Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla.
That's when he'll reunite with second baseman Ian Kinsler, who has not played since aggravating a left shoulder strain while lifting weights last Thursday.
"Ian is supposed to play tomorrow and Wednesday," Ausmus said. "Iglesias gets tomorrow off and plays Wednesday. Because it's a night game-day game, Iglesias won't play the following day in Viera. You get home at midnight and have to get up, turn around and go. Then we have those two home game splits, probably get Iglesias in there back-to-back at short again but longer, maybe five innings and five innings."
Catcher Alex Avila returned to the lineup for the first time since suffering low back tightness and leaving after one inning last Wednesday in Viera, Fla., against Washington.
Avila said after the game that he was fine.
Yoenis Cespedes started Monday at designated hitter, his first game since last Thursday, when he left the game against Philadelphia with left quad tightness.
"Right now he's going to text us in the morning when he gets up," Ausmus said. "We have him scheduled to play left. If he's a little iffy when he gets to the field, we could always try DHing him again. Right now he's scheduled to play left."
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