DETROIT - Brian Powell didn't expect to be pitching in the major leagues this season, but here he is.

So why not, on a sunny Sunday afternoon in venerable Tiger Stadium, throw a few inside fastballs to Toronto's Jose Canseco?

Yes, the slugger is 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, and has 375 career home runs (that's 41st all-time), but what the heck...he has no idea who's throwing to him - Powell was 11 when Canseco hit his first big-league homer, after all.

So, in the top of the first, Powell threw a couple of balls low and in to start, then watched Canseco foul one back. Then, the former Georgia star put a fastball a few more inches inside, forcing Canseco to jack-knife back to avoid being popped in the leg.

Powell's next pitch went a long way, in a hurry. A rope heading directly down the left-field line. But it curved foul. Barely. And Canseco popped out to the first baseman two pitches later. Rookie 1, veteran 0.

Moments like that have made Powell an unlikely success story in his first few weeks in the majors. Moments like that may keep Powell here for a while.

Called up from Triple-A Toledo on June 27 to replace injured starter Bryce Florie, Powell has quickly become a favorite of Tigers manager Buddy Bell. So much so that when Florie comes off the disabled list next week, he could be eased into a long-relief role so Powell can stay in the majors.

Sunday's performance against the Blue Jays, in which Powell surrendered three hits and two runs over seven-plus innings without walking a batter, probably cemented his spot in the rotation.

As they have in each of his three starts, the Tigers eventually lost the game, this time 7-2, but Powell was the talk of the Detroit clubhouse afterward. He pitched well enough to win his first major-league game, and even his mistakes weren't that bad.

His final pitch, a change-up to Ed Sprague leading off the top of the eighth that ended up in the upper deck in left-center, wasn't, according to Bell, "a great pitch to hit."

Even the most cynical of creatures, old Detroit newspaper reporters, have taken to the rookie. The consensus Sunday was that Powell had matched his Toronto counterpart - future Hall-of-Famer Roger Clemens - pitch for pitch. When a local sportswriter offered that assessment to Bell, the third-year manager did not object.

"I did too," said Bell. "I thought he pitched very well. Did he walk anybody? No? That's what you want. He's pitching against (Shawn) Green and Canseco and (Carlos) Delgado and (Mike) Stanley and (Tony) Fernandez and Sprague - I mean, these guys are all veteran hitters that have had very successful careers. The kid pitched about as well as you can pitch."

That's why Bell immediately went to the mound with the hook after Sprague's homer tied the contest at 2-2 - "I didn't want him to lose (the game)."

The 24-year-old Bainbridge native has taken an up-and-down, albeit quick, road to get into a position where major-league managers fuss over his won-loss record.

Powell was Detroit's second-round pick in 1995 following his junior season at Georgia, and he signed with the Tigers in time to play that summer. He pitched well enough for Class A teams in Jamestown, N.Y., and Fayetteville, N.C., to earn a shot at high Class A Lakeland, Fla., in 1996.

But the next year was nothing but trouble. Powell, suffering from what he calls a "dead arm" after throwing just over 200 innings between Georgia and the minors the previous season, plummeted to 8-13 with a 4.90 ERA at Lakeland. He also lost a few miles per hour off his fastball.

"I was trying to throw the ball too hard to start with," said Powell. "I felt like I had to impress someone, and I got away from the way I pitched. I got back to it and things started clicking again."

That realization helped Powell revert back the form he showed at Georgia, where he remains the school's all-time leader in shutouts (five), second in career strikeouts (352) and third in innings pitched (357-2/3).

First to return was his fastball and his statistics followed, as Powell went 13-9 with a 2.50 ERA in his second season at Lakeland. He struck out 122 batters in 183-1/3 innings, walking only 35.

That progress continued this spring at Double-A Jacksonville. Powell immediately became the ace on a deep Suns pitching staff, leading the team to the first-half title in the Southern League's East Division before he was summoned to Toledo.

Powell made one start for the Mud Hens, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Syracuse Chiefs on June 20. He found an apartment in Toledo - about an hour's drive from Detroit - and settled in to close out the year with the Mud Hens. He was pleased with his progress.

Then came June 26.

"I was sitting in a hotel room," Powell recalls. "I was supposed to start that night in Rochester. It was about 4:30, I was putting my shirt on, about to go to the yard, and I got a phone call, and it was our manager (Gene Roof), and he said 'Pack all your stuff, you're going to Detroit and throwing tomorrow.'

"I kind of thought it was a joke, I thought it was my roommate calling me from the field, and I listened a little bit, and I realized it was for real. I guess it didn't kick in to me until I was out on the mound the next night, because it was so quick.

"If I'd have had to sit around for two or three days on the bench, watching everything, I might have gotten a little more nervous. But it was such a rush. I left that night, had an 8:15 flight, and I didn't get to bed until about 2:00 that morning, and the next day I was at the field, in a ballgame."

Powell got a no-decision as he became the 19th former Bulldog to play in the big leagues. He is the only Georgia alumnus currently in the majors. The Tigers lost to the Cincinnati Reds that night in extra innings, but Powell's six solid innings of work opened a few eyes. Another start followed, this a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium on July 2, but already observers had noticed plenty of positives in his makeup.

In a July 4 column, longtime Detroit Free Press baseball writer Gene Guidi concluded with the question: "Is Tigers rookie right-hander Brian Powell here to stay?"

The answer looks more like yes every day.

Powell, one of eight rookies on Detroit's roster, said he is gaining confidence with each start, and has shown improvement every time out.

"I think today, I finally went out there and I was a little bit more relaxed, at ease," he said Sunday afternoon. "It didn't feel like, 'God, if I give up a run, I'm going back to Toledo.' I took the pressure off myself and just said hey, have some fun, and go out there and pitch."

Powell figures he might as well enjoy his time in Detroit, noting optimistically that if he does get sent down at some point, he'll almost certainly be recalled when the rosters expand from 25 to 40 players on September 1. But Bell said he thinks Powell has done enough to merit at least a few more starts for the Tigers, the next of which will come Friday against the Boston Red Sox.

"Well, it's like (Tigers general manager Randy Smith) says, the only way that Brian Powell will be sent out is if we feel like this is hurting him," said Bell. "And we have seen no indication of that, whether it be in the clubhouse, whether it be work on the side, whether it be the game itself. This kid really deserves to stay around, for a lot of different reasons."

Despite such praise, Powell continues to tiptoe around thoughts of being a full-time major-leaguer, noting that "a lot of other guys deserve to be here, too."

He is still commuting every day from his new apartment in Toledo, which he barely had time to move into after jumping from Double-A to Triple-A to the majors in less than two weeks. He's not quite ready to go house-hunting in the Motor City.

"I don't know how long I'll be up here, so I'm just trying to make the most of every opportunity I get," he said. "Hopefully, I can stay. If not - I won't say I don't care, but I understand. There's always September to be able to come back up, then fight for a spot next year."

And so it goes for Powell. He keeps one foot in the minor leagues and one foot in the majors, but it seems more and more weight is shifted to the latter every day.