DETROIT -- Brad Ausmus is hoping hell have a chance to use every position player on his roster before too long -- no sense letting backups become rusty at the beginning of the season. Matt Calvert Avalanche Jersey . "Yes, Id like to get them in," Detroits rookie manager said. "Mother Natures going to have a say in that." Sure enough, the Tigers had their game against the Kansas City Royals postponed because of rain on Thursday. The game will be made up June 19, when the Royals are back in town for what was initially supposed to be a three-game series followed by an off day. Detroit will move on to a three-game series against Baltimore thats scheduled to start Friday -- when the weather may not be much better. The Tigers are planning to push right-hander Anibal Sanchez back to Fridays start after he was supposed to face the Royals on Thursday. Rick Porcello is now slated to pitch Saturday, meaning left-hander Drew Smyly will be skipped in the rotation. Kansas City, on the other hand, will simply skip rookie Yordano Ventura, who was scheduled to pitch Thursday. Jeremy Guthrie will start Fridays home opener against the Chicago White Sox, as planned. Ventura will be available out of the bullpen. The Tigers won their first two games under Ausmus, scoring the winning run in their last at-bat both times. The new manager made a big move in Mondays opener, sending rookie Tyler Collins to pinch-run in the ninth inning of a tie game. Collins ended up scoring the winning run. Collins then started Wednesdays game in left field, but shortstop Andrew Romines first start was put on hold by Thursdays postponement. Outfielder Don Kelly and backup catcher Bryan Holaday havent played either. Now the Tigers face the prospect of additional postponements, and they have scheduled off days April 7, 10 and 14. It has the makings of a choppy start to the season. "You try to balance getting veterans rest and getting reserve players in, but when you have all these off days, the truth is the veterans probably dont need the rest," Ausmus said. "You still have reserves that need to get in, so it can be a little bit of a juggling act." Ausmus says hes settling into the Detroit area. As manager of the Tigers, hell have to deal with a certain celebrity status, and he says people recognize him. "I havent been around that much," Ausmus said. "Ive gone out to eat, but other than going out to eat, Ive kind of been holed up." The Thursday afternoon game was called about an hour before the scheduled first pitch, amid temperatures in the 30s and with significant rain expected. The decision to skip Smylys spot in the rotation came as no surprise. Its an easy chance for the Tigers to manage his innings as he makes the transition back to the starting rotation after spending last season in the bullpen. Detroits talented rotation has been on display already. Justin Verlander pitched the opener and Max Scherzer worked eight scoreless innings Wednesday. Thats part of the reason Royals manager Ned Yost isnt panicking over two losses in which Kansas City struggled to score. "Youve got to understand what youre dealing with," Yost said. "What weve dealt with here the last two days is Verlander and Scherzer. I mean, these are top-of-the-line pitchers in the American League, so theyre on most days going to shut teams offences down." At least the Royals were able to leave town without having to face Sanchez, too. "Hes nails, too," Yost said before the game was called off. "You just keep plugging until you start to get on track." NOTES: The Tigers claimed LHP Mike Belfiore off waivers from the Orioles and optioned him to Triple-A Toledo. Gabriel Landeskog Jersey . -- Alex Anthopoulos spoke volumes with what he didnt say on right-hander Ervin Santana. John Wensink Jersey . Eller said the Oilers were a "junior team" that was "all over the place" before Edmontons 4-3 victory over Montreal on Tuesday night, Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins took offence to Ellers comments and used it to motivate his youthful team. http://www.hockeyavalanche.com/authentic-cale-makar-avalanche-jersey/ . Bookies were offering odds of 13/1 before kickoff that the home team Houston Dynamo would prevail by three goals to nil.(SportsNetwork.com) - After avoiding their first three-game losing streak in three years, the Seattle Seahawks will try to make up some ground in the NFC West on Sunday at CenturyLink Field. Theyll do so against a winless Oakland Raiders club that is off to its worst start in 52 years. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks dropped a two-point decision to the St. Louis Rams on Oct. 19, seven days after losing for just the second time in their last 19 at home with a setback to Dallas. Faced with the possibility of losing three in a row for the first time since Oct. 23-Nov. 6 -- and for the first time with quarterback Russell Wilson under center -- Seattle responded with a 13-9 victory over the Carolina Panthers. While it wasnt an emphatic end to their two-game skid, the Seahawks saw Wilson lead a late scoring drive. Carolina went up by three points on a field goal with 4:37 to play, but Wilson came back to lead a 9-play, 80-yard scoring drive, capped with his touchdown pass to tight end Luke Willson with 47 seconds to play. As an offense, I felt like we kept knocking and knocking. Thats kind of our attitude out there, Wilson said. Wilson shook off a rough start to finish 20-for-32 passing with 199 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Marshawn Lynch ran for 62 yards and Doug Baldwin had six catches for 61 yards. At 4-3, Seattle is tied with San Francisco for second place in the NFC West, with both teams trailing 6-1 Arizona. The playoffs are already a fading dream for 0-7 Oakland, which has lost 13 straight games dating back to last season. Their winless stretch through seven games to begin the season is the worst for the franchise since 1962, when it lost its first 13 games before winning its season finale. Oakland visited the Cleveland Browns last Sunday and lost a 23-13 game despite a career-high 328 passing yards by rookie quarterback David Carr. He completed 34 of his whooping 54 pass attempts as the Raiders fell to 2-17 on the road since 2012. We came up short again out here. I thought the players effort was really hard out there on the field today, said Tony Sparano, who is 0-3 since taking over as interim coach. We played with a lot of energy, a lot of passion and a lot of enthusiasm. We didnt play smart football, any time you come on the road and you turn the ball over three times. Carr had thrown for less than 200 yards in three of six games entering Sunday, but hooked up with tight end Mychal Rivera seven times for 83 yards while also completing a touchdown pass to wide receiver Andre Holmes. I thought Derek battled hard, he fought hard, even towards the end. He had a couple of drops and some other things that he is going to look back at, noted Sparano. The Raiders lead the all-time series with the Seahawks 28-23, but are 10-14 in Seattle. The teams have split their past seven meetings, with the Raiders winning 33-3 at home in the most recent encounter on Oct. 31, 2010. WHAT TO WATCH FOR The Seahawks ruled seven players out of Sundays matchup with the Panthers, but head coach Pete Carroll noted a few guys may be set to return. Pro Bowl center Max Unger, cornerback Byron Maxwell, defensive tackle Jordan Hill and returner Bryan Walters are candidates to come back from injury, though linebacker Bobby Wagner (toe) and tight end Zachh Miller (ankle) are already ruled out. Mark Barberio Jersey. Unger would be a big boost as he has missed the last three games with a foot injury, while Maxwell has been sidelined for back-to-back contests due to a calf aliment. We have some guys on the verge (of coming back), said Carroll. Unger could help get Seattles traditional ground game back on track. The Seahawks rank second in the NFL with 148.4 yards per game on the ground, but Lynch has not posted a 100-yard rushing game since Week 1 and his 62 yards versus Carolina was his highest total in three weeks. The Pro Bowl back hasnt scored on the ground in four straight games. Wilson, though, has been able to make some plays with his feet this season to at least help move the ball on the ground. Oakland, meanwhile, has gotten little out of its run game, managing an NFL-worst 69.6 yards per game. That probably wont change this weekend as Seattle is ranked sixth against the run (89.6 yards allowed per game) and fifth in total defense (316.1). Oakland did manage to hold Cleveland to a mere 39 rushing yards a weekend ago and an average of 1.6 yards per carry. That marked the sixth time since 2012 that the Raiders allowed less than two years per carry. With the Raiders unable to move the ball, Carr has had to attempt 249 passes. He has completed 61 percent of those for 1,517 yards. Last week he had the first ever 300-yard passing game by a Raider rookie and he is 31 yards shy of setting the Raider rookie record for passing yards in a season. That is currently held by Matt McGloin, who posted 1,547 yards last year. With nine touchdown passes on the season, Carr is three shy of matching Andy Daltons NFL-rookie record of 12 TD passes through the first eight games of the 2012 campaign. Oakland is tied for second in the NFL with eight sacks allowed, but that doesnt mean Carr hasnt been pressured a lot on the year. In fact, Cleveland got to him three times as the club was forced to go pass-heavy. Hes got a great release, probably one of the best releases that Ive been involved with, so he gets the ball out and doesnt take a lot of sacks like that. Thats all part of it, its a big part of it, Sparano said of Carr. Hell be tested again as the Seahawks bounced back from getting zero sacks against the Rams to bringing down Carolinas mobile quarterback Cam Newton three times. Linebacker Bruce Irvin had two of the sacks and defensive tackle Brandon Mebane had the other. This was a better day of pressuring the quarterback across the board. We moved him early. (Newtons) numbers werent the kind that he sometimes puts up. I felt that the four-man stuff was good, the pressure stuff worked out well and it gave us a better rhythm in the game, said Carroll. OVERALL ANALYSIS A stop in Cleveland was obviously the best chance for Oakland to get its first win of the season on this quick two-game road trip. Seattle has already been stunned and surprised once at home this season and Carroll will have his team ready to avoid another let down. Seattle should be able to get its ground game going this weekend and Lynch is in line to break out in a big way. Oakland will come to town with low expectations, but it seems a longshot it will leave with a victory. Sports Network predicted outcome: Seahawks 31, Raiders 12 ' ' '