2011 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Penny scuffles as Tigers fall to Pirates

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/20/2011 10:05 PM ET

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PITTSBURGH -- For manager Jim Leyland, utilityman Don Kelly and most of the coaching staff, the Tigers' trip here began as a homecoming. By the time the Pirates were finished handing Detroit a 10-1 loss on Friday night, it looked more like a trap.

A Tigers team that suffered back-to-back one-run losses at Boston arrived in town early Friday morning, hoping for a Interleague-style recovery before beginning a 10-game homestand. But the Pirates returned home off a two-game sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati, playing better baseball this year than they have in a while.

Once this game turned, it turned big, with a six-run sixth inning. A Lyle Overbay leadoff homer off Brad Penny, a wide double-play throw from second baseman Scott Sizemore, back-to-back two-out walks from Penny and Brayan Villarreal and back-to-back two-run doubles from Garrett Jones and Neil Walker turned what was briefly a tie game into a runaway.

Pirates starter Jeff Karstens (2-2) sent down Detroit's first 14 batters in order until Andy Dirks hit a easy line drive into center field with two outs in the fifth. Andrew McCutchen's sliding grab on Pittsburgh native Don Kelly's sinking liner killed that rally, but Detroit's next hit tied it. Santiago turned on a hanging sinker from Karstens and sent it halfway up the right-field seats for his first home run since Sept. 26 and his fourth Interleague home run in the past three years.

Stranding Austin Jackson at second following his one-out double kept the Tigers from taking the lead. Once Overbay turned on Penny's first pitch in the bottom of the inning for a home run to left-center, Detroit was down for good, though they came close to keeping it at that.

A walk and a single put runners at the corners with one out, prompting Pirates manager Clint Hurdle to pull Karstens for pinch-hitter Matt Diaz. Penny induced a ground ball from Diaz that nearly became an inning-ending double play, but second baseman Scott Sizemore's throw went wide and in the dirt as Brandon Wood scored. While there was no guarantee that an on-target throw would've retired Diaz, it would have had a shot.

An ensuing four-pitch walk to McCutchen ended Penny's night, but Villarreal's full-count walk loaded the bases for Jones' liner to left-center and Walker's drive to the left-field fence.

Walker capped the Pirates' scoring with a three-run homer in the eighth, giving him a career-high five RBIs on the night.

Command overcame National League experience for Penny (4-4), who gave up five runs on six hits and five walks over 5 2/3 innings. Villarreal allowed two more runs on two hits with one batter retired. The deficit provided a low-pressure chance for Joaquin Benoit to work on his mechanics with a perfect inning on two strikeouts, but that was about it for the silver lining.

Santiago, meanwhile, turned in two of Detroit's six hits. Five of his 21 Major League home runs have come in Interleague Play.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers can't halt late rally from Pirates
Scherzer suffers his first loss of the season

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/22/2011 12:24 AM ET

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PITTSBURGH -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland had plenty to lament Saturday night, from another rough sixth inning to an inexplicable four-pitch walk to a relief pitcher at the plate to a rundown that resulted in an insurance run.

In the end, he couldn't get past the same concern he had before Saturday's 6-2 loss to the Pirates. The result didn't argue otherwise.

"We scored two runs again," Leyland said afterwards. "That's obviously a problem for us."

Before the game, after Leyland talked about all other topics, he came back to two main concerns: He had to get his key hitters producing again, and he had to get Joaquin Benoit back in form to put his bullpen back in order. The Benoit issue is going to take longer than a weekend. The Tigers can't survive long with a relatively dormant offense.

They came close to the big hit Saturday. Austin Jackson hit the kind of drive to the warning track in straightaway center that required an Austin Jackson-like effort for a center fielder to run down with two outs and two on in the seventh. But Andrew McCutchen is that kind of center fielder, and he made it look a lot easier than it actually was to keep the Pirates ahead.

"He's going to catch that ball every time with his speed," Leyland said.

The Pirates scored three more runs in their half of the seventh to take a 6-2 lead, but even after the add-on runs, three straight singles from the bottom half of the order brought the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth with nobody out and closer Joel Hanrahan looking for a pitch. But a called third strike off the outside corner sent Ryan Raburn back to the dugout, and a hard-hit ground ball from Jackson turned into a game-ending double play and an end to Jackson's career-best 12-game hitting streak.

Not only did consecutive doubles from Andy Dirks, Miguel Cabrera and Brennan Boesch in the fourth produce Detroit's only runs, they accounted for all the extra-base hits.

"I thought maybe we were going to get something going there," Leyland said. "We got three doubles in that one inning, got a couple runs. But we're obviously putting our starters under a lot of pressure because we're not getting runs to give them some breathing room."

It's far from the only concern for the Tigers during this five-game losing streak. Their bullpen appears to be showing more than simple rust from lack of work during the Tigers' dominant run of starting pitching before this weekend. Now that they've gone back-to-back nights without getting their starter through the sixth, the bullpen questions have had more time on display. They've had a couple defensive plays come back to haunt them in the series, from a missed chance at a double play Friday to the aforementioned rundown that allowed the Pirates to sneak in a runner from third.

When teams aren't hitting, those problems become magnified. So do mistake pitches. As a result, though this was far from Max Scherzer's worst outing of the year, it was his first loss, and the first time he had to truly go back to his standard line.

"I wish I would've executed better," said Scherzer (6-1), who missed out on a chance to become the first Tigers starter with a 7-0 record by the end of May since 1939.

For the Tigers, it was their fifth loss in a row, and it dropped them back below .500.

"Every inning is life or death, really, right now, because we're not swinging the bats and scoring runs," Leyland said.

For a while, Scherzer actually seemed to thrive on that. Once Detroit scored, Scherzer provided a shutdown early, overpowering Neil Walker and Lyle Overbay on 94 mph fastballs. He struck out the bottom third of Pittsburgh's lineup in order in the fifth inning, spotting fastballs on Brandon Wood and Ronny Cedeno.

He seemed set to do the same in the sixth, putting McCutchen in an 0-2 hole before he got a slider and laced a ground ball through the left side for his second leadoff single. Another 0-2 count became a Jose Tabata single on a 1-2 fastball he centered.

"I [had] two strikes on the first two batters there and I didn't execute," Scherzer said. "I didn't finish them off. I gave them a chance to get a hit, and they got the hit."

He never got the chance with Garrett Jones, who had taken first-pitch fastballs for strikes in his first two at-bats. Jones got a first-pitch changeup the third time, but he waited long enough to line into the right-field corner for an RBI double.

Overbay got out of an 0-2 count to line another sac fly to right, putting Pittsburgh ahead. Scherzer couldn't pitch for the strikeout in that situation, but was looking for better.

Ryan Perry finished out that inning and waited through the Tigers' potential rally in the top of the seventh. But once he came out for the bottom of the inning to see reliever Jose Veras at the plate for the first time in his big league career, he flinched, throwing four pitches that weren't particularly close to the strike zone.

"That was the first pitcher I've thrown to," Perry said, "and it definitely threw me for a loop."

He found the strike zone from there, but for back-to-back singles. Leyland went to Daniel Schlereth against Jones, but Pirates manager Clint Hurdle countered with pinch-hitter Matt Diaz, who hit a two-run single.

"It was a little bit [of a] disaster, the add-on runs," Leyland said. "You feel like at 3-2 after six, it's still anybody's game. And we still had a shot at the end. But we scored two runs again."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello dominates as Tigers top Bucs

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/22/2011 7:01 PM ET

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PITTSBURGH -- The only opponent that has beaten Rick Porcello since mid-April is rain. On a sunny May Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, that didn't give the Pirates much hope, once Porcello found his form.

When the Tigers skipped Porcello's rotation spot following last Tuesday's rainout, the question immediately turned to what kind of rust he might battle in Pittsburgh on 11 days' rest. Eight innings of one-hit ball over just 84 pitches provided a pretty good answer. The resulting 2-0 win provided a stop to the Tigers' five-game losing streak.

The Tigers still have concerns about their offense heading back to Detroit for a 10-game homestand. They do not have to worry about their 22-year-old starting pitcher, however, who will gladly take his next two assignments on regular rest, weather permitting.

"We've got to hope that a good win gets us going a little bit, and we start relaxing a little more and swinging the bats a little bit better," manager Jim Leyland said. "Our starting pitching's been very, very good."

For this just-finished five-game road trip, Porcello was statistically the best of the bunch, though he hadn't pitched since the Tigers' last road trip in Minnesota. When Tuesday's game against Toronto was rained out, Leyland opted to keep Phil Coke and Justin Verlander on their regular turns the next two days. The pitching from Coke and Verlander backed up the decision, even though the Tigers didn't win.

It was the second time Porcello had been skipped over in an unbeaten streak that now spans six starts over a six-week stretch since he lost his first two starts of 2011. He started at Cleveland on 10 days' rest on April 30 and turned in seven innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts in settling for a no-decision.

Porcello topped that on Sunday, on rest as well as results. All that stopped him on Sunday was a two-run lead and Leyland's decision to go to closer Jose Valverde for the ninth, but more on that later.

"He's a smart guy and a good concentration guy," Leyland said of Porcello. "And he's always going to be prepared. He's like a position player. He's like Donnie Kelly; he's always ready."

For someone so young, it's a weighty compliment.

Porcello's Cleveland start on long rest was planned out well in advance, given the Tigers had two scheduled off-days in a five-day span. This one was more improvised. His approach, too, was a little different, given he was facing an opponent he hadn't seen in two years.

Porcello said he used the extra time to work on secondary pitches -- mainly a slider that he wanted to make more consistent, but also a curveball that he hasn't used often since last year.

Once the games started, Porcello said, he learned as much as he could from observation.

"I just tried to stay focused and stay locked into the games leading up to my start," Porcello said. "Especially a team like this that we haven't seen all year, [with] a lot of the hitters you don't really know that well, I was trying to watch those two games prior to see what Brad [Penny] did to them and see what Max [Scherzer] did to them and pick up as much as I can. The hardest part about that is just staying sharp, mentally."

Porcello saw a dangerous leadoff man in Andrew McCutchen, whom he wanted to avoid giving ground balls and chances to beat throws. He also saw power hitters -- notably Neil Walker and Garrett Jones -- who could punish offspeed pitches in the strike zone.

"They were swinging early," Porcello said.

So when Porcello and catcher Victor Martinez took the field for the first, they came out with a heavy dose of sinkers before they changed speeds.

"He definitely had all his pitches," Martinez said. "I knew when we left the bullpen, he was going to have a good day. His two-seam fastball, his sinker, it was unbelievable. It was big, heavy. When he's got that pitch, the rest of the pitches just keep the hitters off balance. He did a great job."

The only difficult ball Porcello faced the first time through Pittsburgh's lineup was one he caught himself, as he snared Walker's second-inning liner. After a fourth-inning leadoff walk to McCutchen, Porcello mixed pitches and retired the next six batters.

Ronny Cedeno broke up the no-hit bid by pouncing on a first-pitch fastball for a double leading off the sixth. Pinch-hitter Xavier Paul sacrificed Cedeno to third, but after another walk to McCutchen put the potential tying run on base, Porcello escaped with a double-play grounder from speedy Jose Tabata.

Porcello needed just 84 pitches to cruise through eight innings. He produced as many base hits at the plate as he allowed on the mound.

"He was just throwing a lot of strikes," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "You look at his pitch count after he went out after eight innings; you're not going to see many lower the rest of the season. When a guy is sinking the ball and has enough late life with the slider and changeup and throwing strikes with it, you can't sit there and take two strikes, hoping that he misses."

Casper Wells' opposite-field, two-out RBI single in the second inning and Jhonny Peralta's seventh home run of the year in the fourth built a lead for Porcello to protect. After that came a decision Leyland knew would be second-guessed, but one he said he didn't debate.

"This is worth a second guess for everybody in America, particularly starting pitchers, but to me, it's a no-brainer," Leyland said. "To me, unless it's some guy that's just totally lights-out, still overpowering, in my opinion, a top-notch closer is supposed to be better than your starter. After your starter pitches eight innings, if you've got a top-notch closer, he's supposed to be better.

"To me, we had the best guy out there for the ninth inning, no matter how it turned out."

Porcello got it, even if he hoped Leyland would decide otherwise.

"The competitive part of me definitely wanted to finish the game," Porcello said. "But I understand. You feel good about him coming in and closing the game out, for sure, and we needed this one bad."

After Paul's leadoff single and a McCutchen hit-by-pitch, it looked iffy. Valverde struck out Tabata on three pitches before Jones' groundout shifted the runners to second and third, moving the Pirates within a hit of a tie game. Valverde put Walker in an 0-2 hole before he grounded out, wrapping up his 11th save in as many chances.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Rookies pave way for Tigers' win over Rays

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/23/2011 11:00 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers prepared Charlie Furbush as a starting pitching prospect, but gave him his first Major League shot as a reliever. Once starter Phil Coke left with an injured ankle Monday night, Furbush stepped in with 3 2/3 scoreless innings to earn his first big league victory with a 6-3 duel over the Rays at Comerica Park.

The win pushed the Tigers back over .500 with their second straight win after a five-game losing streak briefly knocked them a game under.

Furbush arrived from Triple-A Toledo on Saturday once swelling in Brad Thomas' left elbow forced him onto the disabled list. The International League's strikeout leader hadn't made a Major League appearance, however, until Coke turned his right ankle slipping off the mound trying to field a Ben Zobrist bunt down the third-base line.

Coke had a perfect game going into the fourth, then gave up a walk, two hits and a run. Once he came up limping after Zobrist's bunt, manager Jim Leyland quickly called to the bullpen, but with no warmup limit as an injury replacement, Furbush took all the time he needed, warming up deliberately as a just-converted starter.

After a full-count pitch near the knees was ruled ball four by home-plate umpire Sam Holbrook to put two runners on with one out, Furbush escaped with back-to-back strikeouts of Felipe Lopez and Kelly Shoppach.

Once Furbush found his rhythm, he started hitting the strike zone with a variety of pitches, including a slow curveball that left Rays hitters off-balance. He used that for back-to-back groundouts from Zobrist and Sean Rodriguez on his way to retiring the side after Johnny Damon's leadoff double in the sixth.

By then, Furbush was pitching with a tie game after former Mud Hens teammate Andy Dirks hit his first Major League home run leading off the bottom of the fifth. Once Furbush ended the Rays' sixth-inning threat, Brennan Boesch's two-out double extended the bottom of the inning for Miguel Cabrera to deliver a ground ball through the right side.

Boesch, who tested former Tiger Matt Joyce's arm on the double, did it again coming home on Cabrera's hit. Joyce's throw beat him, but Boesch eluded catcher Shoppach's tag to put the Tigers in front.

That rally put Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson (5-3) on the hook for the loss despite just four hits allowed over 6 1/3 innings.

Detroit broke it open with a four-run eighth off Rays reliever Juan Cruz, all with two out. Victor Martinez delivered a two-run double and Jhonny Peralta followed with a two-run single.

Furbush's outing was the longest by a Tigers reliever in his Major League debut since Dave Haas in 1991.

Joaquin Benoit, just returned to the setup role, replaced Furbush in the eighth and retired his former team around one walk. Jose Valverde worked an eventful ninth to close it out -- giving up a two-run single to Sam Fuld with two out before getting Damon, the potential tying run, to line out to end the game.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Avila, Cabrera power Tigers over Rays

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/25/2011 12:42 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Justin Verlander was slamming his helmet against the dugout bench after his sixth and final inning, frustrated over a Rays rally that put his team behind again. He took a spot near the dugout railing and watched the rest of the game unfold.

Minutes later, Alex Avila had a look of quiet frustration after his second error of the night, a foul ball he couldn't track down in front of the visiting dugout at Comerica Park.

By game's end, they were all celebrating, mainly around Avila for his second homer of the night, a two-run shot in the eighth that powered the Tigers to a 7-6 win.

They've been streaky from one series to the next, but this is one of the rare times they've been streaky from one inning to another. They'll take it.

The way their streaks have been going, they'll take all the wins they can get.

"It wasn't a great night for me," Verlander said. "It was a great night for the ballclub. I couldn't be more happy. That was a big win to show the guts we showed."

After following up a seven-game winning streak with a five-game losing streak, the Tigers have now won three straight, with a chance for their fourth four-game winning streak if they can pull out Wednesday afternoon's series finale.

But Tuesday was different than a lot of their wins. They've tended to dominate opponents in their winning streaks, mainly on the strength of their starting pitching. By comparison, just two of their previous 24 wins in 2011 had come when trailing after seven innings.

This was an admittedly sloppy game they pulled out. They're not proud of the sloppiness, including two costly miscues in a three-run sixth inning that put the Rays ahead.

"It was kind of a sloppy game -- physical errors, mental errors, Justin wasn't pitching well," Avila said. "It could've been a lot worse, as far as the game could've gotten out of hand with more runs. We were able just to kind of harness it and not have it snowball."

The last time Verlander gave up six earned runs in a game was April 11 of last season, and he did that over five innings. They pulled that one out, too, overcoming what was a 5-0 first-inning deficit by scoring nine times over the final five innings.

Matt Joyce, one of Verlander's teammates in 2008 before Detroit traded him for Edwin Jackson, was 3-for-6 off Verlander going into the night. Joyce ended up with two more hits off Verlander, including a two-run homer as part of a 3-for-4 night, and it took a diving catch from left fielder Andy Dirks to retire the Rays right-fielder even once.

"Anytime you face a great pitcher like Justin, and put together a lot of good hits and a lot of good at-bats and score some runs on him, you're definitely confident going into the late innings of games," said Joyce.

B.J. Upton, whose dropped ball allowed Jhonny Peralta to score the game's first run, was 7-for-14 off Verlander before singling in Evan Longoria with the game-tying run in the sixth. Upton followed that with nearly as big of a play on the bases, taking off from first base on a steal attempt that brought an errant throw from Avila. Sizemore's throw home bounced past Avila and hit Joyce in his right elbow as he scored. Upton advanced to third, setting up Casey Kotchman's sacrifice fly for a 6-4 Rays lead.

"I didn't feel great," Verlander said. "My location wasn't great."

Tampa Bay's sixth inning killed the momentum the Tigers picked up from Miguel Cabrera's go-ahead home run in the fifth, the team's first three-run homer this season. Avila cut into the lead by jolting a solo homer into the right-field seats in the bottom of the sixth, but a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play with Austin Jackson at the plate and Scott Sizemore caught stealing erased the potential tying run.

Avila's next error came in the next inning.

"You're going to make errors. That's kind of part of the game," he said. "My approach wasn't any different. I wasn't so mad that I wanted to do something. I always want to do something."

Rays manager Joe Maddon went back to his bullpen once Joel Peralta walked Jhonny Peralta with one out in the eighth. On Monday night, lefty Cesar Ramos had entered the game in a similar situation, and struck out Avila with two on in the eighth, one inning after J.P. Howell induced a double play from the Detroit catcher to end the seventh. This time, Ramos was on the job again.

Those Monday at-bats are what Avila remembers, at least for mental notes. He hasn't struggled nearly as badly against lefties this year as he had in the past, but only one of his first seven homers had come off southpaws.

"In that situation, you're just trying to hit the ball regardless of what the pitch is," Avila said. "Normally, when they bring in a lefty to face a lefty, you're seeing a lot of breaking balls. Yesterday, he got me out with a slider, and normally you try to get him with a fastball.

"Once he fell behind 1-0, I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere. He left a fastball out over the plate, and I just didn't miss."

Avila hit an opposite-field shot that sailed over the left-field fence and into the Tigers bullpen, where Joaquin Benoit was already warming up. He couldn't have expected a save situation, but he got it, and he ended up earning his first save as a Tiger against his old team.

"The one issue we don't have around here is not playing nine innings," Leyland said. "We play nine innings every night. When you play nine innings every night, you're going to sneak some now and then."

This one, they snuck. But they weren't apologizing for it.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers rained out of finale against Rays
By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 05/25/11 4:42 PM ET

DETROIT -- For the third time in 11 days, the Tigers have suffered a rainout. This time, they made it through 2 1/2 innings of their scheduled series finale against the Rays on Wednesday before heavy rain and thunderstorms led to a postponement.

The game was rescheduled for June 13 at 7:05 p.m. ET. It will be replayed in its entirety.

The Tigers had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the third inning when the umpires called the teams off the field. Rain had grown progressively heavier in the top of the inning.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers held in check after Scherzer struggles
Hurler allows seven runs in career-low two-plus innings vs. Boston

By Chris Vannini / MLB.com | 5/26/2011 7:20 PM ET

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DETROIT -- On Wednesday, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead against the Rays and hoped the incoming rain would hold off long enough for the game to become official. It did not.

On Thursday, early rain may have been the Tigers' best friend, but it didn't come until it was too late. A hot Red Sox offense jumped all over the Tigers, as Detroit fell, 14-1, in a game shortened by rain to 7 1/2 innings.

The Red Sox jumped on Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer early and often, as the right-hander gave up seven runs in two-plus innings -- the shortest start of his career.

"It just wasn't Max's day," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "When he threw it good, they hit it bad but got good results, and when he threw it bad, they hit it good and got real good results."

After starting the season 6-0, Scherzer has two losses and a no-decision in his last three outings. He threw six straight balls to open the game, but got out unscathed. But things unraveled for him right as the second inning began.

Back-to-back singles by designated hitter David Ortiz and outfielder Carl Crawford were followed by an RBI double from infielder Drew Sutton. An RBI single from outfielder Josh Reddick gave Boston a 2-0 lead, and two batters later, outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury blasted a three-run home run into the right-field seats to open up a 5-0 lead.

The third inning was much of the same for Scherzer. A single by first baseman Kevin Youkilis and a walk to Ortiz were followed by a two-run triple for Crawford, ending Scherzer's day.

"He just kind of struggled getting command of his pitches, falling behind a lot of guys," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "When he did make his pitches, it seemed like it was a bloop single or an infield single or something like that. He didn't catch any breaks, where sometimes if those turn into outs, you can get rolling a little bit and kind of gain some momentum. But that didn't happen."

Scherzer has given up 14 earned runs on 22 hits over 13 1/3 innings in three career starts against the Red Sox.

"The hope is, every game you play, you get to him," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Some days, it doesn't work. We got a lot of work and we're glad. I don't know that you expect to do that, especially with the way he's been throwing."

With the early deficit and clouds moving in, heavy rain and postponement would have seemingly been the best thing to happen for Detroit. But the early rain never came -- though the Tigers never admitted to wanting to slow the game down.

"You're never hoping for the rain," Avila said. "You want to be able to play out the games. To kind of cancel a game during the game, you never want that to happen. ... You either want to play it through or get it canceled right at the beginning before starting the game, or at least have the delay at the beginning of the game so you don't have to waste any pitchers."

The Tigers have had back-to-back outings ended early by rain. On Wednesday, the Tigers led the Rays, 2-0, in the bottom of the third inning before the game was delayed and eventually postponed. Four of the Tigers' last seven appearances at home have either been postponed or cut short.

"It's definitely frustrating, but you really can't do anything about the weather; you can't control that," outfielder Austin Jackson said. "We understand that, but we're definitely looking forward to better weather."

Scherzer was replaced by Adam Wilk, who was making his Major League debut after being called up Tuesday. Wilk retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before finding himself in a little trouble.

Back-to-back singles by Reddick and catcher Jason Varitek led off the sixth inning for Boston. But Wilk found his composure and struck out Ellsbury and second baseman Dustin Pedroia. A fielding error by Tigers second baseman Scott Sizemore allowed an unearned run to score, but Wilk was a bright spot in an otherwise ugly game for the Tigers.

"He did fine," Leyland said. "It was his first Major League outing, and I thought he did well."

Wilk gave up just the two hits in 3 2/3 innings. A Major League debut is always a memory for players, but performing well makes it that much more special.

"It was pretty awesome running out there from the bullpen," said a grinning Wilk. "It was kind of surreal. It's always breathtaking."

The Tigers' offense put a couple rallies together, but couldn't generate many runs. Outfielder Brennan Boesch was hit by a pitch to lead off the fourth inning, and first baseman Miguel Cabrera followed with a single. Boesch advanced on a forceout at second base, and he scored two batters later on a single by Avila, as the Tigers cut the deficit to 7-1.

Detroit put runners on second and third with one out in the fifth, but a Boesch popout and Cabrera strikeout ended the closest threat the Tigers assembled the rest of the way.

Pitcher Ryan Perry came on to relieve Wilk, but his recent struggles continued.

Perry gave up four runs on four hits over 1 1/3 innings, moving his ERA on the season to 12.19. Perry's replacement, Enrique Gonzalez, also continued his struggles, giving up two runs in one inning to push his ERA up to 12.79 on the year.

The rain, which began in the top of the sixth inning, came down harder as the remaining fans watching from the concourse saw Boston score five runs in the eighth before the tarp came out. The game was called 55 minutes later.

"It's just one of those games you want to put behind you as fast as possible and try to get to the next day," Jackson said.

Chris Vannini is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Furbush a bright light in loss to Boston

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/28/2011 12:41 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers have to be feeling encouraged with each scoreless inning Charlie Furbush tosses. The situations that bring him into these games are another matter.

The last time manager Jim Leyland decided to pull Rick Porcello, he had controversy on his hands, and he spent the next couple of days answering questions about it. There was none of that when Leyland brought in Furbush to begin the fourth inning on Friday night, only the damage of a five-run Red Sox third inning en route to a 6-3 Tigers loss.

Furbush's five scoreless innings prevented Boston from having a third straight double-digit-scoring game. His work also left the Tigers a sliver of an opportunity late against Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon, but the damage was too much.

After Porcello's last meeting against the Red Sox two years ago ended with a takedown of Kevin Youkilis and the benches clearing, the rematch ended in a knockout punch.

"They're professional hitters," Porcello said of the Red Sox. "All the way through, they've got guys that know how to play. They'll make you work, and they don't miss pitches. That's the biggest thing -- the mistakes that you throw, they make you pay for them."

The Tigers brought up Furbush as a long reliever, to enter when the Tigers need to fill innings. His 3 2/3 scoreless innings against the Rays on Monday, however, changed the course of that game, allowing the Tigers to mount a comeback and overcome Phil Coke's injury.

Coke's bruised foot created a starting opportunity for Andy Oliver -- who will take the hill on Saturday -- not Furbush, who instead was given three days off of throwing to rest his arm. Friday was his first game available.

Furbush's presence wasn't looking quite as necessary, as Porcello worked through the Red Sox order with little incident. The second time around was a different story.

"Rick was just all over the place," Leyland said.

Jacoby Ellsbury hit a leadoff bloop single, stole second and eventually scored on a wild pitch. He rounded the bases the easy way in the third by hitting his second homer in as many nights. Dustin Pedroia's walk and Adrian Gonzalez's single put two on for Youkilis, who drove a double to the wall in right-center.

Two batters later came Carl Crawford, coming off back-to-back four-hit games. He had only one hit on Friday, but it was a two-run homer off Porcello, and it completed the damage.

"Some of our lefties, they got pitches a little out over the plate and up, and [Crawford] put good swings on them," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He's got good stuff. He's going to be fine."

Porcello finished his three innings at 75 pitches, nine shy of his pitch count over eight scoreless innings at Pittsburgh last Sunday. He gave up six runs on six hits.

"Last start, I commanded my pitches," Porcello said. "That was the biggest thing. I was able to keep guys off-balance, getting ahead of guys, throwing strikes [with the] fastball, slider, changeup. This time around it wasn't the case. I was falling behind guys, putting them in counts where they were going to get good pitches to hit."

Furbush began the fourth inning by facing the bottom of the Boston batting order and got on a roll, beginning with a strikeout of Jarrod Saltalamacchia. In the fifth, he overcame Gonzalez's leadoff single by recording back-to-back strikeouts of David Ortiz and Crawford, then he retired six straight batters from the sixth into the eighth.

Included in that roll were called third strikes on Gonzalez and Youkilis. The first was an offspeed pitch he dropped on the inside corner. The second was a belt-high fastball that he used to freeze Youkilis.

"I was just throwing all my pitches for strikes," Furbush said, "trying to attack the zone and keep the ball down and keep the team in the game for as long as I could."

Add together Furbush's two appearances, and he has nine strikeouts over 8 2/3 scoreless innings. He has the longest scoreless streak by a Tiger to begin his Major League career since Chris Mears lasted 10 1/3 innings in 2003.

When Furbush arrived, Leyland said that he wanted to see his ability to retire hitters on pitches in the strike zone. Friday was a demonstration of that. And with Detroit's bullpen in flux between David Purcey's arrival and Ryan Perry's demotion, Leyland hinted that he could find some more specialized situations for Furbush.

The way the Red Sox are hitting lately, though, the Tigers' long relief is getting a workout. Boston's big lead left Detroit hitters swinging early and often against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Nearly 20 years after Wakefield helped Leyland's Pirates to the postseason, his rare pitch continues to confound hitters when it's on. He has given up six home runs in a game in Detroit and pitched eight scoreless innings. His seven innings of two-run ball on Friday fell somewhere in between.

"He's a knuckleball pitcher. You either hit him really well, or you don't," catcher Alex Avila said. "We hit a lot of balls hard today and made some really nice plays. It was just one of those days where we needed to come through as an offense. We hit a lot of balls hard, but just had nothing to show for it."
Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers' game vs. Red Sox rained out
Clubs will play split doubleheader Sunday at Comerica Park
By Chris Vannini / MLB.com | 05/28/11 9:20 PM ET

DETROIT -- The third game of a four-game series between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox was postponed Saturday due to rain. The teams will play a split doubleheader Sunday, with the first game at 1:05 p.m. ET and the second at 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for Saturday's game will count for Sunday's night game. The day game tickets remain the same. The pitching matchups will remain the same, as the Tigers' Andy Oliver will pitch against Boston's Clay Buchholz in the day game, and Justin Verlander will go against Josh Beckett in the nightcap.

The night game will not be televised due to the Major League Baseball national network windows of exclusivity, as ESPN has the rights for the Sunday night slot and local television for game telecasts beginning after 5:05 p.m. are not allowed.

It was the fourth time in nine scheduled home games that a game was postponed. Thursday's 14-1 loss to the Red Sox was also called after 7 1/2 innings due to rain.

The previous three postponements this season came in series finales, so they were rescheduled for later in the season. The Tigers will host the Rays on June 13, the Blue Jays on June 27 and the Royals on Sept. 1 in makeup games. Unlike those series, this is Boston's only trip to Detroit this season. According to Stats, the Tigers are the first team with four rainouts in this short of a span since the White Sox in September 2008.

The Tigers had six games postponed last season, three of which were in May, and two of which were at home.

As a result of the split doubleheader, Kids Run the Bases has been canceled for this Sunday. Additionally, there will be no fireworks following the 7:05 p.m. game.

Chris Vannini is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers' Game 1 rally undone in the ninth

By Chris Vannini / MLB.com | 5/29/2011 6:21 PM ET

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DETROIT -- For the first time in six days, an opposing pitcher had a quality start against the red-hot Boston Red Sox.

The Tigers' Andy Oliver was that pitcher, and though he left trailing, he came away with a no-decision after Detroit rallied to tie the game.

But David Ortiz hit a pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning to break the tie and give the Red Sox a 4-3 win Sunday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader. It was the Sox's fifth straight win and their fifth against the Tigers this season.

After the previous two Tigers starters in the series were knocked out in the third inning, it appeared Oliver would go the same way in his first start of the season. But the lefty got out of a rough first inning and finished his day giving up three runs and five hits over six innings, while walking three and striking out three.

"I thought he did a heck of a job," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Oliver. "I thought he got better as the game went on, obviously. Had better command of his pitches, needs to get a little better command of his fastball. ... A little shaky early with the command, but he did a great job."

Oliver had location problems early, as a 3-1 pitch to outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury was ripped into the gap for a leadoff double. The Red Sox took advantage of Oliver's slow delivery, as Ellsbury stole third base before Dustin Pedroia walked.

Pedroia stole second before Ellsbury scored on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Gonzalez for a 1-0 Red Sox lead. Kevin Youkilis was then hit by a pitch, and the Red Sox pulled off a double steal with Pedroia and Youkilis, giving Boston four stolen bases in the inning.

"I think my slide step was going a little too slow to the plate so they were taking advantage of it," Oliver said. "They were pretty aggressive."

But Oliver recovered and escaped with minimal damage after two popouts ended the inning.

The best way for Oliver to prevent the stolen bases was to not put runners on the bases, which he accomplished by limiting Boston to just four baserunners in his final five innings.

But the Red Sox didn't need men on base to do some damage, as Mike Cameron hit a solo homer in the second inning and Pedroia added a solo homer in the third as Boston opened up a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers began to rally against Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz in the fourth inning, as outfielder Andy Dirks led off with a solo home run. But they stranded Miguel Cabrera at second base.

Designated hitter Brennan Boesch homered in the fifth inning to cut the deficit to 3-2, and Cabrera followed with a double. Jhonny Pertalta then drove him in with a single with two outs to tie the game at 3.

Oliver wasn't overly proud of his performance, but was happy with how it ended. After the first two innings, Oliver was able to get ahead in the count and get quicker outs as a result.

"It comes down to trying to make pitches," Oliver said. "In the first two innings, I was behind in the count, and when you get ahead of the count, you can manage the game pretty well."

Oliver went 0-4 with a 7.36 ERA in five starts for Detroit last season. The 23-year-old has improved his breaking ball and had a 3.31 ERA in nine starts at Triple-A Toledo this year prior to getting the call for Sunday's game.

"He's really a good-looking prospect, there's no question about that," Leyland said. "He's a keeper. He's a really good-looking young pitcher. He's got some things yet to learn and do, but he's going to be fine."

The game remained tied until the ninth inning, as closer Jose Valverde came on for the Tigers. After getting pinch-hitter J.D. Drew to fly out, Ortiz came to the plate.

After a splitter was thrown for a ball, Ortiz fouled off three straight fastballs on the outside of the plate. Two more pitches were thrown low, loading the count. In a battle of strengths, Valverde's fastball in the middle of the plate was hit 412 feet into right-center field for the decisive blow.

"David Ortiz is a good hitter, there's nothing you can do," Valverde said. "This guy has a lot of power. He's [done it] for Boston a lot of times in the World Series."

It was Ortiz's second career at-bat against Valverde. The previous was a grand slam in Boston.

"I know Valverde, he's got a good fastball, he's got a split-finger," Ortiz said. "It's not like I have too many options when you come off the bench to pinch-hit, so I just went for one pitch, and he gave it to me."

The Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the inning, with second baseman Ryan Raburn striking out for the third time to end the game.

Chris Vannini is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander plays stopper as Tigers take nightcap

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/29/2011 10:50 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Ten days after Justin Verlander and Josh Beckett battled to no-decisions, their rematch Sunday night at Comerica Park came down to a rough first inning, a battle with fastball command, and a high pitch count.

None of that happened to Verlander. His 7 2/3 scoreless innings allowed RBI hits from Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera to stand as the difference in a 3-0 Tigers win to salvage a day-night doubleheader split at Comerica Park and avoid a four-game series sweep.

Though Verlander outlasted Beckett in innings May 19 at Fenway Park, he had given up more runs and left trailing before a Tigers game-tying rally in the ninth got him off the hook. He never trailed this time around; once the Tigers earned him a lead, he carried it as long as he could, setting a career high pitch count in the process.

Not only did Verlander erase a leadoff single in the opening inning with an Adrian Gonzalez double play, avoiding first-inning woes, he went on to retire 15 of Boston's next 16 hitters. He pitched his way out of several full counts, including a 10-pitch battle with Dustin Pedroia leading off the fourth.

Verlander overpowered hitters early, tossing back-to-back heaters at 99 and 100 mph to retire Jacoby Ellsbury in the third, and repeating his velocity through the middle innings. After struggling with his curveball early, he found it in time to compound the frustration on Boston hitters later in the game.

Verlander hit 100 mph on his 132nd and final pitch, but it nearly hit Ellsbury for a two-out walk in the eighth inning that put the potential tying run on base in what was then a 2-0 game. Joaquin Benoit entered and retired Pedroia to end the threat before Jose Valverde worked the ninth for his 12th save of the season.

Verlander (5-3) posted the highest pitch count for a Tiger since Felipe Lira threw 135 in 1996, and one short of the Major League high this season. But while Lira's total lasted him just 6 1/3 innings in a 14-inning, nine-run barrage, Verlander's pitching proved crucial.

Beckett (4-2) tried to keep pace, but fell to the kind of early damage he hadn't yielded in what has been a dominant bounceback season for the former Dave Dombrowski draft pick from the Florida Marlins.

Detroit's two-run opening inning matched Beckett's run total for his other 30 innings in May. Andy Dirks' one-out walk set him up to score when Boesch turned on a fastball and pulled it into the right-field corner. Cabrera's single, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, provided a 2-0 lead.

Cabrera doubled in the eighth before Don Kelly singled him in for Detroit's final run.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers top Twins on Avila's disputed double

By Chris Vannini / MLB.com | 5/30/2011 7:31 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Fan interference on Alex Avila's double in the eighth inning allowed Jhonny Peralta to score the eventual winning run, as the Detroit Tigers defeated the Minnesota Twins, 6-5, at Comerica Park on Monday. It was the Tigers' seventh straight win against the Twins, dating back to last season.

Avila's two-out double down the third-base line appeared to ricochet off a fan. The umpires ruled fan interference and said Peralta, who took off from first base on contact, would have scored.

"Looking at the replay, when the fan touched it and where [Peralta] was and where [Twins outfielder Delmon Young] was, I thought he would have scored easy," Avila said. "That play's a judgment call on the umpire, and I thought they made the right call."

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire didn't agree.

"I don't care who it hit -- when it hits a fan in the stands, it's a ground-rule double and you don't score," Gardenhire said. "However you want to call it, that guy doesn't score. So it doesn't make sense to me and what they told me didn't make any sense, either."

Early in the game, it looked like the Tigers were feeling no effects from Sunday's day-night doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers couldn't have gotten off to a much better start in the game, as starter Brad Penny threw an eight-pitch opening inning -- all of them for strikes -- and the offense scored two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Outfielder Austin Jackson scored on a groundout from outfielder Brennan Boesch, and first baseman Miguel Cabrera followed with a solo home run to give Detroit a 2-0 lead. The Tigers scored another run in the third to increase their lead to 3-0.

Penny had great command early, throwing first-pitch strikes to 10 of the first 11 batters he faced, but began to lose location as the game progressed. The Twins scored one run in the fourth inning and rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to take a 5-3 lead.

Penny missed most of last season with a back injury, but with Monday's warm weather came more heat.

"That's probably the strongest I've felt since I got injured last year," Penny said. "It's nice to have my strength all the way back."

As Penny's command wavered, his velocity picked up, as his fastball topped out at 95 mph on multiple pitches.

"It was almost like he wasn't sure how to use it," Avila said. "It's something we have to make an adjustment to, but all in all, he gave us a chance to win."

Outfielder Andy Dirks, batting in the No. 2 spot for the third consecutive game, lead off the sixth inning with a single, and designated hitter Victor Martinez tied the game three batters later with a two-run homer.

The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh inning, but outfielders Jackson and Casper Wells struck out looking and Boesch grounded out into a fielder's choice to keep the game tied at 5. It was a missed opportunity that Tigers manager Jim Leyland said came from the inexperience of his hitters.

Though Minnesota went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position, none of the hits went for more than two bases. The Tigers were 1-for-9 in those situations, but took advantage of two homers for three runs.

"The simple fact is, you've got young players up there in big situations, and sometimes it's hard to learn to knock in a run," Leyland said. "The guys that learn how to knock in a run are guys that expand the strike zone just enough, but not too much."

Avila's controversial RBI double gave the Tigers the lead in the eighth, and Jose Valverde, pitching for the third time in two days, had a 1-2-3 ninth inning that ended with a diving catch by Don Kelly.

"We had the right formula -- it didn't look like it for a while -- but we had the right formula to get a win, and we did," Leyland said.

For a Tigers team that had lost to the Red Sox three times and the rain twice in the past week, there was a little more satisfaction in fighting back and finally getting a break to earn the win. After three games in less than 36 hours, they were looking forward to a break.

"That was an exciting game right there," Dirks said. "To pull it out like we did in the end shows a lot of the character of this ballclub. We've had a long couple days, and we came out and we played just as hard today. It's been one of the hottest days we've had, but nobody let up at any point. That's the kind of team that we have."

Chris Vannini is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Boesch's two key at-bats lift Tigers
Scores tying run, drives in winning run to bail out righty Scherzer

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/1/2011 1:03 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland talks a lot about players picking up each other, making a play after somebody couldn't. This time, he said, they picked up him.

It wasn't a misplay that nearly cost Leyland but what he called a missed decision to let Max Scherzer pitch to Justin Morneau with the lead on the line. Morneau won the battle, but the Tigers, thanks to Brennan Boesch's tying run and go-ahead sacrifice fly, pulled out an 8-7 victory over the Twins Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

"The guys picked me up tonight," Leyland said. "That's a good feeling. They picked the manager up. It was a bad decision."

It was a better feeling than he had as he watched Morneau's second home run of the night sail into the right-field seats. The two-run shot in the seventh inning gave Minnesota a 7-6 lead in a situation where Leyland could have brought in rookie left-hander Charlie Furbush to face the left-handed slugger. Instead, with right-handed-hitter Michael Cuddyer on deck and the Tigers' bullpen down a man with Jose Valverde off, Leyland stuck with Scherzer, who had given up a home run to Morneau earlier but had carefully pitched around him in the next at-bat.

That was the decision Leyland lamented.

"I should've brought in Furbush for Morneau," Leyland said. "That was dumb on my part. I thought Max was fine. He was throwing the ball 95 [mph] that inning. But it was a little late in the game, he hadn't seen Furbush yet. I mean, it was set up perfect, and I blew it. It was my fault. Nobody's fault but mine."

What could have been a difficult loss and a round of second-guessing instead ended up as the Tigers' second late-inning comeback in as many days. Monday's win came despite Detroit's young hitters. Tuesday's win came because of them, none bigger than Boesch.

On Monday, after called third strikes to Austin Jackson and Casper Wells and a Boesch groundout ended a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity, Leyland talked about young hitters learning how to expand their strike zone in RBI situations with two strikes without chasing bad pitches. He called it a learning process. On Tuesday, they seemed to learn quickly.

It put a smile on hitting coach Lloyd McClendon's face.

"Good things happen when you swing the bat," McClendon said.

The Tigers had taken the lead with a six-run fifth inning that included back-to-back RBI doubles from Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta, but also a key RBI single from Jackson with runners at first and second and one out. It was a 1-2 slider low and off the outside corner, but Jackson lunged enough to flare it into right field for a bloop single, his eighth hit this season with runners in scoring position and his first RBI since May 13.

"I was just trying to protect, really, in that situation," Jackson said. "It definitely wasn't a swing that I wanted to take, but in that situation, I was protecting. I ended up getting wood on it and it found a hole."

After Wells drove the next pitch to the deepest part of the park for an RBI double, Boesch got an RBI with an easy ground ball to short that Matt Tolbert threw into the Tigers' dugout trying for an out at third.

Once Boesch came up again, the Tigers were trailing in the seventh, but his leadoff single through the middle set up Detroit to manufacture the tying run with a Miguel Cabrera walk and back-to-back fly balls from Martinez and Peralta. Danny Worth's leadoff single in the eighth set up the same from the top of the order.

Neither Jackson nor Wells nor Boesch got a hit, but they all advanced Worth. Jackson's sacrifice-bunt attempt led former Toledo Mud Hen Phil Dumatrait to an ill-advised attempt at the lead out at second.

"We definitely have him if I throw right to the bag," Dumatrait said. "But I rushed it a little bit and threw it in the dirt and didn't give us a chance."

Instead, Detroit had two on and nobody out, and Wells -- who had to polish his bunting on his way up the Tigers' farm system and now here -- deadened a ball along the third-base line for another sac bunt.

"I've been working on it, just being relaxed, moving up in the box and just trying to get it down," Wells said. "I'm squaring around early so I'm not rushing. I'm glad it paid off there."

Up came Boesch, needing only a sacrifice fly to put Detroit back in front.

"In that situation, I'm looking to be patient to get a pitch to hit, but I'm not trying to guide a sac fly," Boesch said. "You're really just trying to stay relaxed and get a good pitch that you can do the job with. For a left-hander, that's going to be a breaking ball that's up or a fastball out over the plate.

"There's a couple different ways to do it. You just have to identify a pitch that you can get the job done with, any way you can."

Once Dumatrait fell behind on a 3-0 count, Boesch could wait on his pitch. A 3-1 slider might not have been it, but it did the job, skied into right field deep enough for Worth to easily score.

"I've said all along, you have to have patience, especially with young hitters," McClendon said. "They have to go through the experience. Sometimes, they're going to succeed, and sometimes they're going to fail. You have to continue to look at the big picture."

In Tuesday's case, once Joaquin Benoit finished off the Twins in the ninth for his second save, that included a win.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers sweep Twins behind strong Porcello

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/2/2011 12:23 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Not since the Minnesota Twins were the Washington Senators, back in 1950, have the Tigers won this many in a row over the franchise. Nine straight wins doesn't exactly make Detroit feel better about Game 163, but it's a nice consolation prize.

The winning streak began last September, while the Twins were on their way to another postseason berth and the Tigers were battling for .500. If the record wasn't enough evidence that this is a far different Twins team this year, the misplays and odd decisions in Wednesday's 4-2 Detroit win were. The defensive acumen was lacking on two foul balls early, and Alexi Casilla's reasoning for a two-strike bunt attempt as the potential tying run in the ninth inning was a mystery.

Don't expect the Tigers to feel an ounce of pity over that. That's not their business.

"In this league, you don't feel sorry for anybody," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said.

They especially don't feel sorry for a team that snatched division titles from them twice in the last six years. Even this week, Tigers manager Jim Leyland said he expects the Twins to be in the race at the end. That didn't mean he was going to make the moves that allowed them to start getting back in it.

He wasn't going to give Justin Morneau a chance to tie the game off Rick Porcello in the seventh inning, even if it meant giving Daniel Schlereth his first outing in five days, and a first-pitch breaking ball off Morneau's back.

He certainly wasn't going to give Morneau a chance to tie the game in the ninth, even if he had to put him on base and give Michael Cuddyer the opportunity to win it.

If Jim Thome was still looming after Cuddyer, rather than subbed out with a quad strain for Trevor Plouffe, Leyland said he probably wouldn't have ordered the intentional pass. If Matt Tolbert was on first base rather than second, Leyland said he would've thought long and hard about it. If Jason Kubel was available off the bench, rather than out with injury, Leyland would've had a different situation to ponder.

In this case, the potential for second-guessing wasn't going to stop him from doing it

"Even if Cuddyer hits a home run, I think I made the right move," Leyland said. "I was real comfortable with it. I didn't want Morneau to hit a two-run homer to tie it up. I'd already used [Joaquin] Benoit. I'd already used [Al] Alburquerque. I was going for the win. If he hits one, he hits one."

Closer Jose Valverde, whose leadoff walk to Tolbert had set up the situation, needed only one pitch to Cuddyer to get a game-ending groundout and wrap up his 14th save in as many chances. He wasn't taking pity, either.

Neither was Miguel Cabrera earlier in the game, when Minnesota starter Scott Baker (2-4) tried to follow up a breaking ball over the plate by jamming him with a 91 mph fastball off the inside corner. Cabrera easily turned on it and sent it deep to left for his 11th home run of the year, and the third of his career off Baker.

"It wasn't even a bad pitch," Twins catcher Drew Butera said. "We beat him with a couple fastballs early, and he likes to sit on offspeed, so we went in. Looking back on tape, it might've hit him, but he swung at it. He's just a really good hitter, and he took advantage of it."

The two misplays on foul balls, including a Delmon Young error when he misjudged his distance to the left-field wall, followed in that inning, but didn't result in any more runs. In fact, the Tigers were done with their scoring. It looked like more than enough for Porcello (5-3), who scattered three singles over his first six innings despite inconsistent command early.

He didn't have to face Kubel, 11-for-22 lifetime against him, or Joe Mauer. But he didn't particularly care.

"They can still swing it," Porcello said. "I know Kubel was out today, and Mauer is out, but I I think we saw it in the prior game. They can hit, so you can't take anybody lightly."

They finally hit him in the seventh, when Young's leadoff single set up the light-hitting Butera to jump on a hanging sinker for his first home run of the year. Once Casilla popped a bunt past a diving Porcello for a two-out single, Leyland went to his bullpen for a lefty to face Morneau.

One pitch later, after Schlereth plunked Morneau in the back, he went back there for Alburquerque, whose walk to Cuddyer loaded the bases and put the go-ahead run on base, before he executed a 97 mph fastball on the inside corner for strike three to Plouffe.

"After getting him way out front with those two sliders, you just kind of had the feeling he's going to be looking for the slider again," Avila said. "And he throws a 97 mph sinker right on the inside black. When you do that, that's pretty much unhittable."

When you do that against a late-game replacement for a veteran slugger, it's almost unfair. But the Tigers know better than to take pity.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers come up short after Oliver stumbles

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/4/2011 12:50 AM ET

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CHICAGO -- Andy Oliver began his night by working into a bases-loaded, no-out jam without allowing a hit. Sergio Santos ended Friday evening by striking out Miguel Cabrera.

Take that, and most of what happened in between, and the Tigers' series opener at U.S. Cellular Field felt like it should've been a White Sox runaway. Instead, the Tigers came within a Juan Pierre stride of potentially winning this game, a 6-4 loss that ended with the suspense of last year's American League Most Valuable Player runner-up against Chicago's new closer.

The loss ended the Tigers' nine-game winning streak against their Midwestern rivals, but not without a struggle close enough that Cabrera needed a minute to come up with words for it.

"We got lucky the first couple innings," Cabrera said. "They had a lot of chances to score runs, and they didn't score. We kept the game right there. They won today, it was a good win.

"They battled. We battled. We played good for nine innings. They got more luck than us because we hit a couple line drives right at them with runners in scoring position and we weren't able to score, but they got a lot of baserunners with no outs, and they didn't score any runs. It was a good game. A three-run home run, it was the difference in the game."

That fourth-inning home run, Carlos Quentin's 14th of the year, figured to be the difference as soon as Oliver's offspeed offering broke over the plate instead of down and in like he wanted. It just didn't seem like it would get nearly that close afterward, close enough that solo homers from Brent Lillibridge in the fifth inning and Pierre in the eighth technically provided the difference.

Pierre's lunging grab at the left-field fence minutes earlier arguably made a bigger impact.

"We just couldn't get one more over the fence," manager Jim Leyland said. "If we get one more over the fence, we probably win the game."

The White Sox nearly ended up saying the same thing. They certainly had their chances, which is why Leyland conditioned his lament.

"Actually, we were probably fortunate not to give up more runs than we did tonight, to be honest with you," Leyland said. "So that's OK."

While Phil Coke pitched a rehab outing for Triple-A Toledo, Oliver made his second and likely final start in his place. Yet his early jitters resembled somebody worrying about a job on the line. The young left-hander hit Pierre with a 3-2 pitch and walked Alexei Ramirez and Quentin to load the bases with nobody out in the first inning.

Somehow, he escaped hitless in the inning, though not scoreless. His run came from his own miscue, not looking to home for the lead runner or to second for a possible inning-ending double play on Alex Rios' comebacker. Instead, seemingly shaken, he turned to first and fired as a surprised crowd of 23,095 welcomed a game-opening run.

"It was a mistake," said Oliver, who said he became so focused on his pitches that he lost awareness of the situation on the bases.

For a good while, that was the only run Oliver had allowed, despite every indication pointing toward more. He threw first-pitch strikes to just two of Chicago's first 13 batters, and he walked five of its first 19. His final pitch count of 83 included just 43 strikes.

Included in those strikes, however, were some nasty secondary pitches, including a biting slider and a changeup that kept Chicago's sluggers off balance for a while as they eagerly tried to tee off on his fastball. It went opposite of his scouting report, and if he could find the fastball command he normally has, he could've left his damage at that.

Without it, though, he grew to rely on his offspeed pitches, which kept him out of trouble until he tried to throw them back-to-back to Quentin. While catcher Alex Avila lined up down and in on the 0-1 pitch to Quentin, Oliver left it too far over the plate.

"It was a little out and over the plate," Oliver said. "I'd just thrown one previous and he was able to pull it."

Casper Wells slugged the Tigers back into the game minutes later, turning on a Mark Buehrle slider for his second homer, a three-run shot. Reliever Charlie Furbush kept them within reach for one more rally in the eighth once former White Sox closer Matt Thornton entered.

The Tigers sprayed the field with line-drive singles -- Victor Martinez to right, Jhonny Peralta to center, Ryan Raburn to left -- to set up their shot with one out. Thornton stayed in against lefty-hitting Avila, who sent an opposite-field shot toward the left-field corner. Pierre turned just in time to track it down at the fence as Martinez tagged up and scored.

"The catch from Pierre was huge," White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "Bases loaded, if he misses that ball, we're down and trying to fight back. But with that play, it allowed Santos to come in and strike [pinch-hitter Ramon Santiago] out and do what he's done all year."

Since replacing Thornton at closer, Santos has closed games. This one, he certainly earned after he walked Austin Jackson leading off the ninth. By retiring Andy Dirks and Brennan Boesch, he set up his showdown with Cabrera. A steady dose of sliders eventually sent Cabrera down swinging.

It was the end result many expected after the first few innings, just not nearly as easy.

"It was a good game between two tough teams," Cabrera said. "We've got two more games here."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Cabrera blasts Tigers past White Sox

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/5/2011 12:30 AM ET

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CHICAGO -- Justin Verlander still remembers his struggles at U.S. Cellular Field earlier in his career. After seven straight wins against the White Sox since 2008, they don't get old.

Miguel Cabrera doesn't have to think nearly as far back for his struggles against the White Sox, especially in Chicago. He wanted to make his tiebreaking two-run homer in the ninth inning sound like any other home run, that it was important for the Tigers' 4-2 win over the White Sox on Saturday night.

Still, the little skip in his step down the first-base line, while his line drive cleared the right-field fence, said plenty. He has his share of home runs against his longtime friend Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox, some of them big, but none quite like this.

One night after Sergio Santos finished off a save with a game-ending strikeout of Cabrera, one inning after Verlander had one of the better escapes of his career to strand runners on the corners in the eighth to keep the game tied, Cabrera made sure the White Sox didn't escape through him in the ninth.

"We had a lot of chances to score runs and win the game, and we didn't finish the job," Cabrera said. "It's kind of a little frustrating because we had a chance to do that. But it's why our manager and our coaches always push us that we've got to play hard for nine innings, because you don't know when you'll come up there and get a base hit or make a nice play to win the game."

For Cabrera, it was a nice hit off a mistake pitch from longtime division foe Jesse Crain. For his teammates, even those who have seen him do it for a while now, it was still impressive.

"[The pitcher] gets you down two strikes and you're wondering what he's going to throw next," said Austin Jackson, who strolled home with the go-ahead run as Cabrera made his way around. "For him to take that slider to the opposite field, that's one of the most impressive things he does."

Jackson watched it all unfold from third base. His leadoff drive to center field off Crain nearly put the Tigers ahead, but hit off the fence and bounced past Alex Rios. Jackson hit another gear around second base and ended up on third base without a throw.

Then he had to wait.

Crain set up Don Kelly to get a popout to second. Brennan Boesch then ran the count full before he swung and missed at a changeup for the second out.

It looked all too much like the first half of the game, when former Tiger Edwin Jackson stranded eight Tigers over the first four innings. Detroit sapped 40 pitches out of him in the opening inning, including Boesch's two-run homer, but a ranging stop from Gordon Beckham denied Alex Avila a potential bases-loaded single.

That was Jackson's great escape on his way to a quality start and a no-decision. Verlander's escape came in the bottom of the eighth, with runners at the corners and one out for the heart of the White Sox order. Quentin was 8-for-26 with three homers against him going into the night, and had reached base safely all three times to bat Saturday.

A good curveball on the outside corner put Quentin at 0-2 and set up Verlander for whatever pitch he wanted. He pounded him inside with a 98-mph fastball that seemed ever so close to the corner, belt high. He didn't get the call from home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro, and he couldn't hide a flash of frustration.

"I said something, and I probably shouldn't have," Verlander said, "but with my personality, the way I am, it's hard for me not to. But I was able to step to the back of the mound, take a second, take a deep breath and just reset."

With the count full and Quentin just needing contact, Verlander went to the same pitch, but in the opposite corner.

"I gave it everything I had," Verlander said. "I hit my spot. I'd been pounding him in all game, a lot of fastballs in. So I felt like if I could spot that one away, I could get him out."

His 109th pitch of the night hit 100 mph on the stadium radar gun. More important, he hit the outside corner for a called third strike.

Four pitches later, he fielded A.J. Pierzynski's comebacker while falling down, then fired to first for the out. It wasn't the hit that knocked him over, he said, but it was the only way he felt he could field it. He left the field with a smile on his face.

He was in the dugout when Cabrera, 2-for-9 against Crain, stepped to the plate. Guillen could've opted to walk him, but took his chances.

"I've got a great hitter behind me," Cabrera said. "If they don't pitch to me, they don't pitch to me in that situation. I want to keep my mind clean, be aggressive and try to look for one pitch I can get the bat on."

The pitch came after an 0-2 slider off the plate. Crain's next slider was still low, but caught enough of the strike zone for Cabrera to get one of his trademark opposite-field shots.

As he rounded the bases, the Detroit contingent in the crowd of 22,795 cheered. Verlander pumped his fist in the dugout.

"Obviously, after losing a tough one last night, to come in here and win an emotional game the way we did today was big," Verlander said.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Raburn's slam helps Tigers to series win

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/5/2011 8:12 PM ET

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CHICAGO -- Admit it, you had a feeling of dread when White Sox starter Jake Peavy struck out Detroit's first three hitters on Sunday and got through the Tigers lineup without trouble through three innings.

Manager Jim Leyland had a similar feeling. He didn't necessarily have the surprise a lot of fans probably had when Ryan Raburn provided the crushing blow off Peavy the next time through the order, but he had the same sense of appreciation getting out of town with a 7-3 rubber-game win at U.S. Cellular Field. It gave the Tigers their sixth win in seven games and their smallest deficit with first-place Cleveland -- now 2 1/2 games -- since April 26.

"It wasn't too comfortable there for a while," Leyland admitted. "Peavy was really throwing good -- inside, outside, sinking it, sliding it, running that fastball back over the outside edge to a right-handed hitter. It wasn't looking too good for a while, but we finally got to him a little bit and then, of course, Ryan Raburn got a big one."

That was a go-ahead grand slam from somebody who was 3-for-26 with nine strikeouts with runners in scoring position and two outs this season. Still, for somebody who earned playing time and patience with torrid summers the last few years, it's the instant offense Leyland has been waiting to see.

That doesn't mean he's on his way. But as contributions go, his first home run since April 30 was big.

"His game is like waves," Miguel Cabrera said. "Right now, he's worried because he's not hitting too much, he's not hitting for average. I said, 'Don't worry. It's going to be your time. Get your timing, be ready. It's a long season. We're going to need you.' And you see what happened today. He got a big home run for us today."

Cabrera had been giving encouragement to Raburn in recent days as he saw Raburn continue to press. He had been kidding with him, too, that the second half was just around the corner and that's when he gets hot.

"It's going to take one day at a time. You don't get big numbers in one day. You have to do something every day, play hard every day, and at the end of the season, I think the numbers are going to be there. That's why I told him, 'Don't worry about that.'"

Cabrera provided the go-ahead home run on Saturday night after the White Sox pitched to him rather than walk him and face Victor Martinez. Raburn faced the opposite situation, but it took a 13-pitch duel between Cabrera and Peavy to get there.

That scenario looked incredibly unlikely to happen, the way Peavy was pitching through three innings. He struck out four of the first nine and headed into the fourth inning having thrown 38 pitches. Chicago jumped to a 2-0 lead thanks to Paul Konerko's first-inning double and a Brad Penny wild pitch.

Detroit needed just three hits to plate six runs, thanks in part to three Peavy walks. A duel with Cabrera might have been the tipping point.

Cabrera is a nemesis for a lot of former National League pitchers, but Peavy isn't one of them. Cabrera was just 2-for-23 against Peavy, including a second-inning groundout. But after Cabrera fell into a 1-2 count, he worked his way back to a full count before fouling off six straight fastballs moving in different directions.

"Peavy's one of the toughest pitchers I've faced in the big leagues," Cabrera said. "He's one of the best in the game. But today, I think we battled with the stuff he has. Like I said, we don't give at-bats away. We always fight at bat and try to make something happen."

As it turned out, Peavy was also battling himself. A tweaked groin he suffered breaking off the mound to cover first base turned into a full strain.

"If you watch the game, you watch where my pitches went. They went where they were intended to go the first three innings," Peavy said. "Then after that, I didn't even really throw one ball where it was supposed to be thrown. I was trying to throw balls away from Cabrera. It was almost hitting him up and in."

One pitch seemingly did, and Cabrera argued for it to no avail. He still got the walk to load the bases, and after Martinez nearly missed a grand slam on a sac fly to right and Andy Dirks doubled in a run, a four-pitch walk to Avila brought up Raburn.

"I had a feeling they were going to try to pitch around Alex and see if he'd chase or not," Raburn said. "Alex has been swinging the bat great all year and I haven't. I think we would've done the same thing in that situation. I just wanted to be aggressive with a strike and was able to get a good pitch and put the barrel on it."

Raburn jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Peavy (2-1) and got all of it, sending it into the White Sox bullpen in left for his fifth home run of the year and his first grand slam since 2009.

Cabrera's second home run in less than 24 hours, a sixth-inning solo shot that carried just out of the reach of Brent Lillibridge as he climbed the center-field fence, padded the lead.

Penny (5-4) gave up eight hits, more than twice as many as Peavy, over five innings, but managed to hold the White Sox to three runs to qualify for his fourth win in his last five decisions.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Like a Boesch: Career night helps Tigers roll
Detroit launches four homers in taking seventh win in eight games

By Drew Davison / Special to MLB.com | 6/7/2011 1:37 AM ET

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ARLINGTON -- The night belonged to Brennan Boesch.

In leading the Tigers to a 13-7 victory over the Rangers on Monday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Boesch shined above everybody else.

He notched his first career multi-homer game. He set career-highs with five hits and five RBIs. And it all started against a pitcher -- Rangers right-hander Colby Lewis -- he had been 0-for-10 against in his career.

"I knew I had to change something," Boesch said. "He's a crafty pitcher and uses a couple of different pitch mixes to get guys out. He was able to get me out most of the time on pitches off the plate, so I just wanted to get strikes. And when I do that, usually good things happen."

That they did.

In the first, Austin Jackson singled, Don Kelly drew a walk and Boesch belted a three-run shot into the upper deck in right field. Boesch led off with a homer in the third, too, roping one around the right-field pole.

Andy Dirks also had a two-run shot in the inning, and Alex Avila went deep two batters later to give the Tigers an early 7-0 lead.

Detroit (32-27) eventually knocked Lewis out of the game after 3 1/3 innings, his shortest outing in two seasons for Texas (34-27). Lewis allowed nine runs on 10 hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

"He got a lot of balls up, and their left-handers didn't miss them," said Rangers manager Ron Washington. "I thought he made a pretty good pitch to Avila, it was down, but when things aren't going your way and you make a good pitch, it gets hit too."

Detroit starter Max Scherzer pitched well enough to earn his first victory since May 9. He allowed five runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts over five innings.

Still, Scherzer wasn't too pleased with his outing, saying he has been frustrated with his performances since beginning the season 6-0. He felt like he left too many fastballs over the zone that the Rangers were able to capitalize on.

"I didn't have a good rhythm," Scherzer said. "Missing everywhere with my fastball, didn't have good fastball command. I had to force myself to come back in the middle with my fastball, and I got burned a couple of times."

The biggest mistake was a 2-2 offering that Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz belted over the left-center-field wall in the fourth inning, one which pulled Texas within five runs. He later gave up an RBI single to Ian Kinsler, but the Rangers never truly threatened.

After all, the Tigers' offense had its best game of the season, setting highs in homers (four), extra-base hits (10), runs (13) and hits (18). All 10 batters recorded base hits in helping Detroit to its seventh victory in its past eight games.

The Tigers scored single runs in the sixth and seventh and capped it off with two in the ninth. Danny Worth, who pinch-hit for Kelly in the seventh, had three RBIs in his two at-bats. Miguel Cabrera went 2-for-5, and Jackson had three hits.

But the story of the night was Boesch, who finished 5-for-6. He had a .186 average in 23 games in May and has a tendency to be hard on himself. That's something the Tigers would like to see him change.

"I'm working on it," Boesch said. "It's hard to be easy on yourself when you have expectations. That's something I'll probably fight the rest of my career. It's a daily thing where you have to remind yourself this game isn't easy. It's a fine line of not putting too much pressure on yourself, but also having high expectations that you want to meet.

"It's just in my personality. I've always been someone that's driven to do well. I try not to get frustrated when the results aren't there, but it's hard when you're on a team that you care about winning a lot and want to help the team any way you can. When you don't feel like you've done the job, I don't think anyone goes home smiling. It's something I'm working on."

Detroit manager Jim Leyland was especially pleased to see Boesch come through with his third multi-hit game in the past four contests.

"He had a huge, huge night," Leyland said. "Good for him. He's getting better all the time, getting relaxed. He's so hard on himself -- [we're] trying not to get him to be so hard himself."

He wasn't on Monday, at least.

Drew Davison is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello, 20 hits carry Tigers past Rangers

By Todd Wills / Special to MLB.com | 6/8/2011 2:08 AM ET

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ARLINGTON -- For the second straight night Tuesday, the Tigers did exactly what you have to do in Texas -- hitters pound the baseball, and pitchers pound the strike zone.

The Tigers cranked out 20 hits a night after breaking out for 18, and Rick Porcello went after the Rangers and put up six solid innings as Detroit routed Texas, 8-1, at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The Tigers already have their second road series victory on this trip wrapped up headed into Wednesday's finale against the Rangers' Alexi Ogando. The Tigers are swinging hot bats up and down the lineup -- everyone in the starting lineup had a hit. The Tigers hammered out at least 18 hits in back-to-back games for the 11th time in club history, and the first time since 1993.

"That's the best of both worlds, yes," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Everybody doing a little something. That usually means good things are going to happen."

The Tigers waited a few innings before scoring four runs in the top of the fourth. Victor Martinez started the rally with a double. After Jhonny Peralta struck out, Alex Avila singled to left to put runners at first and third. Ryan Raburn followed with an RBI single to left for a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers continued to grind away at Rangers starter Matt Harrison. Danny Worth walked, and Austin Jackson had a two-run bloop single into right-center field for a 3-0 lead. Casper Wells capped the rally with a double to left to score Jackson for a 4-0 lead.

"I wasn't able to make my pitches when I needed to," Harrison said, "and I was falling behind a lot of guys in that fourth inning -- getting a lot of deep counts, giving them too many pitches to look at. When you do that, you're going to get in trouble."

Meanwhile, Porcello cruised through the first four innings, allowing just three singles. The Rangers finally got to him in the bottom of the sixth, when Ian Kinsler scored on Josh Hamilton's tapper in front of the plate to make it 4-1. Michael Young followed with an infield hit to put runners at first and second, but Porcello got Adrian Beltre to line out and struck out Nelson Cruz.

The Tigers tacked on two runs in the top of the seventh on RBI singles by Peralta and Raburn to make it 6-1. And the offense kept up the onslaught, as Miguel Cabrera had an RBI single in the eighth and Jackson an RBI single in the ninth.

"We took advantage of a lot of pitches left out over the plate," Wells said. "And we took advantage of a lot of baserunners."

Porcello may have been good enough Tuesday without the run support. He went to 4-1 on the road with a 2.27 ERA away from Comerica Park.

Porcello is 6-1 with a 2.60 ERA in his last nine starts and has helped bolster the top of the Tigers' rotation that includes six-game winner Justin Verlander and seven-game winner Max Scherzer.

Porcello came out and threw strikes early. He needed only 87 pitches to get through six innings.

"I was able to get ahead in the count early and get some quick outs," Porcello said. "I had a good sinker tonight. I was able to get a lot of ground balls."

He was at his best facing Beltre and Cruz to end the sixth with both batting as the tying run. Beltre put a brief scare into the Tigers when he lined a drive deep down the left-field line foul. Then Porcello came back with a sinker, and Beltre lined it on one knee to shortstop.

Porcello then went after Cruz, who had two home runs in Monday's 13-7 Tigers victory. Porcello threw Cruz five fastballs, the last one a four-seam rising heater that Cruz swung and missed at.

"Porcello did what he had to do," Leyland said. "You pitch defensive here, you're going to get killed."

The Tigers have now won 21 of their last 31 games for a Major League-best .677 winning percentage over that span. They came into Texas after winning two out of three from the White Sox, and now they'll go for a sweep of the first-place Rangers.

"I don't talk about the wins as much as everybody else," Leyland said. "It's simple. That's the name of the game. You just prepare to win. If you prepare, then the manager is satisfied."

Todd Wills is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Coke struggles, offense fizzles in Tigers' loss

By Drew Davison / Special to MLB.com | 6/9/2011 1:21 AM ET

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ARLINGTON -- Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland called it sluggish. In his mind, that means not controlling the strike zone. Phil Coke wasn't going to dispute that description.

Coke struggled in his first game back since returning from the disabled list with a right foot bone bruise, as the Texas Rangers rolled to a 7-3 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Tigers (33-28) snapped a four-game winning streak and remain 1 1/2 games back of Cleveland in the American League Central.

"If sluggish was the word he chose, he's probably right," Coke said. "I didn't feel on."

Coke got through the first two innings with relative ease, but he quickly ran into trouble in the third against Texas (35-28). He gave up three consecutive one-out singles to load the bases.

Coke appeared to be on the verge of getting out of the jam, though, inducing a ground ball to third by Rangers outfielder Craig Gentry. But Don Kelly airmailed his throw home, gifting the Rangers two runs. Texas then added two more on a double by Josh Hamilton.

In hindsight, Leyland and Coke pinpointed where it all went wrong. It was the second single Coke gave up, as Rangers No. 9 hitter Chris Davis roped a shot to right. Coke had an 0-2 count, but he left a fastball in the middle of the plate instead of his desired location of down and in.

"When you put it on a tee down the middle, good hitters are going to hit it," Coke said. "And that's exactly what happened."

Added Leyland: "One pitch cost him his outing and that was the pitch to Davis. An 0-2 fastball right there, you just can't make those mistakes. I thought that was probably the pitch that hurt the most."

Coke, who fell to 1-6 on the year, surrendered single runs in the fourth and fifth before his night ended. He left after five innings, allowing six runs -- four earned -- on 10 hits with three walks and no strikeouts.

It was his roughest outing in more than a month and leaves him still searching for his first win since April 14.

Outside of Coke, the Tigers' offense also struggled. They were baffled yet again by a rising ace in Rangers right-hander Alexi Ogando.

It didn't matter that in the first two games of the series, everything the Tigers hit seemed to find holes. Their hard-hit balls turned into extra-base hits, and their poorly hit balls turned into bloop singles.

After all, they scored 21 runs on 38 hits in winning the first two games.

But Ogando shut them down for a second time this season. He threw seven scoreless innings against the Tigers on April 11, and he came through with 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball Wednesday.

Detroit took an early 1-0 lead when Kelly belted a homer to right in the first, but that proved to be the lone run for the Tigers off Ogando.

The Tigers didn't have a baserunner reach third again until the ninth. They had a chance in the fourth with runners at first and second with one out. But Jhonny Peralta flew out to center and Avila grounded out to first.

Ogando went on to retire 13 of 15 batters, with only Victor Martinez reaching in the sixth and Avila reaching in the seventh -- both on errors -- before giving up consecutive two-out singles to Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez in the eighth.

That ended Ogando's night, and Rangers reliever Darren Oliver ended the eighth-inning threat by striking out pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn.

"[Ogando] is throwing anywhere from 80-99 mph. He had unbelievable stuff," Avila said. "He's effectively wild. He'll throw two pitches and look lost, and then he throws one on the black at 97 mph or a slider for a strike. Not only does he have great stuff, but he can make the pitches he needs to."

The Tigers finished the night 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, with the only hit coming in the ninth inning. Austin Jackson had an RBI double.

"Ogando got some people on bags, but he was able to make the pitches when he had to," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "If you look at the first three innings, I don't think anybody would have thought he'd have made it to the eighth, but he did."

Despite the loss, the Tigers head back home feeling good about going 4-2 on this six-game road trip through Chicago and Texas.

"That's a pretty good week for us," Leyland said. "You don't want to ever sound satisfied, but if we win four out of six on the road the rest of the way, I'd be very tickled."

Drew Davison is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander K's 10 as Tigers top Mariners

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/9/2011 9:31 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Alex Avila became just the third Tigers catcher in at least the last 92 years to hit two triples in a game. His team squandered the first one, but used the second as part of a four-run fifth inning to give Detroit all the offense it needed for a 4-1 win over the Mariners Thursday night at Comerica Park.

The win bumped the Tigers to within a game of the division-leading Indians, who were off on Thursday. It marks the closest Detroit has crept to the AL Central lead since April 1, the day after Opening Day. Cleveland opens a four-game series at Yankee Stadium on Friday before coming to Detroit for three games next week.

With Seattle in second place in the AL West, now a game over .500, the Tigers weren't likely to look that far ahead, especially after the Mariners swept three games at Comerica Park in late April when the Tigers made their last threat towards the division lead.

Detroit was outscored by a 24-6 margin in that series, and seemed set to struggle again for runs Thursday after extra-base hits leading off back-to-back innings failed to produce a run off Seattle starter Doug Fister. Avila led off the third inning with a line drive that bounced to the fence in right-center field as he motored around the bases and tumbled into third. Ryan Raburn's popout, Austin Jackson's called third strike and Don Kelly's fly out left him there.

Fister topped that an inning later by following Brennan Boesch's leadoff double with outs from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Andy Dirks. After Jhonny Peralta singled leading off the fifth inning, however, Avila's second triple proved more timely.

Avila powered it to the deepest part of the park, hitting the fence right where it angles in right-center field. The ball bounced past Gold Glove center fielder Franklin Gutierrez and into dead center field before right fielder Ichiro Suzuki ran it down. Peralta had scored the tying run by then, and Avila sprinted into third standing up.

Outs from Raburn and Jackson again seemed set to leave Avila stranded before Don Kelly lined an RBI single to right. Brennan Boesch's two-run homer down the right-field line three pitches later put the Tigers and Justin Verlander in command.

Verlander (7-3) recovered from a run-scoring wild pitch in the fifth inning to strike out the side in the sixth. He retired eight of the final nine batters he faced to finish off eight innings with a season-high 10 strikeouts. Jose Valverde pitched the ninth for his 16th save in as many chances.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers fall to Mariners, stay a game back

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/11/2011 12:33 AM ET

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DETROIT -- If Ramon Santiago's two-out, ninth-inning shot down the right field line had landed a few feet the other way, the Tigers could be tied atop the American League Central standings.

But the line drive drifted a few feet foul, leaving Jhonny Peralta at first base. Santiago grounded out on the next pitch and the Tigers lost to the Mariners, 3-2, and remain behind the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central, where they've been for nearly the entire season.

The Tigers bats were as hot at the Texas heat in Arlington earlier this week, scoring 24 runs in three games. But the strong pitching staff of the Mariners held Detroit to five hits Friday -- two of which were infield singles.

"Sometimes it's almost like you're just not supposed to win that game," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We had a little bit of a chance, but not a whole lot. We didn't do much offensively."

Mariners starter Erik Bedard, who gave up one run in seven innings against the Tigers in Detroit on April 27, kept the Tigers hitters off balance again. Bedard allowed three hits in five innings Friday, but only made one big mistake, which Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez sent to the right field stands to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning.

"He was doing a good job of locating in and out, pretty much, as well as up and down, mixing up his pitches, keeping us off-balance," outfielder Casper Wells said. "He has a slower tempo. I think that worked to our disadvantage at the plate. We're an aggressive team and he did a good job of setting the pace of the game that he wanted to pitch and hats off to him for making pitches in situations."

After the Tigers took the lead, Mariners rookie outfielder Carlos Peguero helped Seattle take the lead right back. Peguero hit a hanging breaking ball into the right center field gap to lead off the fifth inning with a triple. He then scored on a single from Mariners catcher Chris Gimenez to tie the game.

Peguero proceeded to lead off the seventh inning with a solo home run that snuck inside the right field foul pole to give the Mariners a 3-2 lead they would not give up.

"Both not good pitches," Tigers starter Brad Penny said. "The curveball I hung, it was horrible. Just have to make a better pitch."

Peguero was playing right field for the first time in his Major League career in place of Ichiro Suzuki, who didn't start for the first time in 256 games.

"They throw me a lot of offspeed and the last couple games, I've made an adjustment on that and just wait on the offspeed," Peguero said. "I just try to be patient and see good pitches to hit."

Penny pitched his first quality start in his last four appearances, but the recently-hot Tigers offense couldn't muster much of anything.

"Sometimes you've got to pick them up," Penny said of the team's offense. "They're going to pick us up a lot more than we are them. The last home run, I shouldn't have given that up."

Bedard came out after five innings and 96 pitches, giving way to reliever Chris Ray, who pitched two perfect innings and picked up the win.

After Martinez's home run, the Tigers only mustered two infield singles -- both of which would have been routine groundouts if they hadn't hit a Mariners pitcher on the way through the infield.

"We've been swinging pretty good and you would figure you'd get a little more than we did tonight, but sometimes you've got to tip your hat to the other guy," Leyland said.

Down to their final three outs, Leyland was ready to pull out all the stops for the win.

Santiago, the final position player left on the Tigers bench, was ready to pinch-hit for Ryan Raburn, who had three strikeouts on the day and was due up fourth.

Had Martinez reached two batters prior, Leyland was ready to pinch-run for him with pitcher Rick Porcello.

"He had his spikes on," Leyland said of Porcello. "The trainers got him loose. I hate to do it, but I was going to do it."

The replacement was not needed, as Martinez grounded out to short. After an infield single from Peralta that hit off Mariners closer Brandon League, Santiago came up to bat. Down to an 0-2 count, Santiago pulled a slider down the right field baseline.

"I thought it was going to be fair until the last minute," Santiago said. "I got out front pretty good. Jhonny was already halfway to third base. It was so close. The ball kept wanting and wanting to stay straight until the last minute."

It hit the wall a few feet foul and Santiago grounded out to end the game on the next pitch.

Had the ball stayed fair, it likely would have scored Peralta, tied the game and moved Santiago into scoring position.

But it did not, and the Tigers remain one game back of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

"We looked a little bit sluggish offensively, but that happens," Leyland said. "Sometimes you're just not supposed to win the game."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers tied for first after Scherzer's gem

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/11/2011 11:44 PM ET

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DETROIT -- This is what Jim Leyland was talking about when he said contending teams have to beat good pitchers once in a while. With a chance to take over the American League Central race, Saturday was a pretty good time to show it.

They looked like a first-place team as they picked apart Mariners rookie phenom Michael Pineda. And thanks to the 8-1 win at Comerica Park, they actually are. Detroit's win, combined with Cleveland's loss to the Yankees earlier in the day, created a virtual tie atop the division.

"If you want to be in the playoffs," Ramon Santiago said, "like the skipper says, you have to find a way to battle the good pitchers."

The Tigers not only did that, but they made it look a lot easier than expected. Now, even with 98 games left, they can see a path through the division with a race they can soon control.

The Tigers actually top the Tribe in wins, but have one more defeat. It's good enough to put them atop the standings for the first time since last July 10, before Brennan Boesch's summer slump and injuries to Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge left them fighting for .500 by September.

"It's nice to get there," Alex Avila said. "It definitely means something, because that's what we're working toward. We want to win as many games as possible and be in first place [at season's end]. That's the goal. But at this point, that's not something we're focused on. We're trying to win the game that day."

The Tigers will have a chance to make a definitive statement about the division when they meet the Indians for three games at Comerica Park beginning Tuesday night. Still, Saturday's win was a pretty impressive statement on its own.

"It feels good," said Boesch, one of three Tigers with three hits on Saturday. "It's a long way to go, obviously, but the Indians were playing such good baseball early on that it just shows that this team, when we put our heads down and play hard, can be a force to be reckoned with. It feels good to be there right now."

The Tigers knew their best chance at beating Pineda was a batch of early runs and a strong outing from Max Scherzer. They saw Pineda rack up nine strikeouts, half of his 18 outs, here on April 28, completing a three-game series sweep that dropped Detroit to 4 1/2 games behind the Indians.

This time, they got to Pineda early by getting to him early in the count. Then they kept scoring. By the time Avila's 12-pitch walk chased Pineda with one out in the sixth, he was on his way to a career high in runs and matching his run total over his previous five outings.

"The first time, that was the first time we had seen him," Avila said, "so that's going to be tough with a guy as nasty as him. We knew he's basically a fastball-slider guy, throws very hard. And really, the approach was get a good pitch to hit, and don't miss it.

"You want to be able to jump on him early [in counts]. I think after seeing him the first time, it definitely helped today. We had an idea what he's doing -- the way he pitches, how he gets guys out. I think that was the biggest difference."

The early runs were opportunistic, and they reflected what little support, defensively and offensively, Pineda would get. A wild pitch moved Boesch into scoring position following his two-out hit, and a fastball off Miguel Cabrera's left elbow extended the opening inning for Victor Martinez's RBI single. Catcher Miguel Olivo's odd decision to try to pick off Cabrera at third base led to an errant throw and a 2-0 lead.

Once Austin Jackson drove in Santiago with the first of his two triples, Detroit's second two-triple game in three nights, the Tigers had a 3-0 lead after two innings. Pineda had thrown 33 pitches, but Detroit used his aggressiveness against him, putting up five baserunners in the first 10 batters.

"In the first two innings, I didn't want to throw harder. I wanted to conserve my energy," Pineda said. "But I had a little trouble, so I said, 'OK, Pineda. Let it go.'"

That approach eventually seemed to wear Pineda (6-4) down, despite the low pitch count. He had to challenge Jhonny Peralta with a 2-0 fastball in the sixth and paid for it with a two-run home run, then watched Avila foul off five two-strike pitches -- including fastballs of 97 and 98 mph -- to wait out his walk.

By then, Scherzer was cruising, reaping the benefit of a sharpened slider and a harder fastball, both likely results from his between-starts tweak to stay back in his delivery. A pair of third-inning walks comprised all of his damage until Mike Carp's single broke up his no-hit bid with one out in the fifth.

"I really just executed pitches better," said Scherzer (8-2), who moved into a tie for the AL lead in wins. "I was able to keep my slider down in the zone and my fastball down in the zone. A couple balls found our gloves, and our defense made plays."

Two of those plays followed Carp's single. Chone Figgins followed with a blooper into right field, but Boesch fired quickly to second to force out Carp. Greg Halman turned a slow roller to short into an infield single, but Peralta's pump fake caught Figgins breaking past second, looking at an unmanned third base, to start an inning-ending rundown.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello's tough fifth leads to Tigers' loss

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/12/2011 6:40 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers had the early lead and the solid pitching for the second straight game. They had the ingredients for beating Felix Hernandez, like did they for beating Michael Pineda the night before.

Then they had the fifth inning.

"That one's on me," Rick Porcello said of Sunday's 7-3 loss to the Mariners.

Harsh, no doubt. But he believed it.

"We were in a good position to win the game," Porcello continued. "Our offense was able to scratch out a couple runs against Felix. If you want to beat guys like that, you can't make those mistakes. So [Sunday's] loss is entirely on me and that fifth inning."

It wasn't a loss that hurt them in the division race. Cleveland's third straight loss at Yankee Stadium and fourth straight overall maintained Detroit's deadlock with the Tribe atop the AL Central. It did cost the Tigers a chance at taking the four-game series, but after roughing up Pineda Saturday, one might argue the loss to Erik Bedard on Friday night was more of the problem.

Beating Pineda and King Felix is asking a lot, but for a while, Porcello gave them a chance.

"He's not perfect," catcher Victor Martinez said of Porcello. "He really threw the ball great. The numbers don't really say how well he pitched."

The numbers were fairly good, with seven innings of three-run ball over the course of 117 pitches. It marked his eighth quality start in his last 10 outings, and his longest performance innings-wise since he shut out Pittsburgh for eight innings.

Through four innings, he hadn't allowed a ball out of the Comerica Park infield. He had seven groundouts, four strikeouts -- three of them in a row in the third and fourth -- and a relatively easy popup to second base. His sinker and fastball seemingly had as much movement on them as they have all year, which helped him retire 10 Mariners in a row after he walked Jack Cust in the opening inning.

However, by the time Porcello got through the fifth, the Mariners had batted around in the order and milked 36 pitches out of him. More importantly, they turned Miguel Olivo's opening run into a three-run, go-ahead rally with three straight two-out hits.

Two of those runs, Porcello could accept. He could live with the hanging slider to Olivo, who had fouled off a tough sinker and worked his way out of an 0-2 count before guessing at the right pitch. Olivo went 7-for-13 in three games at Comerica Park last April, but had been hitless this series until that point.

The next two runs, and the first of the two-out hits, are the ones that kept Porcello kicking himself after the game.

Porcello faced Ichiro Suzuki with Chone Figgins in scoring position, but there were two outs and first base was open. The righty had a 5-for-12 history against Ichiro coming into the game, but he had retired him twice in as many chances on Sunday.

"They had a right-handed hitter coming on deck," Porcello said, "and I feel pretty comfortable facing just about any right-handed hitter right now."

He wasn't overwhelmed facing Ichiro, either. He also had retired Ichiro two out of three times in their last meeting April 20 at Seattle, but the one hit was a two-out RBI single. It was the only run Porcello allowed in 6 2/3 innings that day.

That day, Porcello threw a first-pitch breaking ball that Ichiro pulled to right field for a single. This time, Porcello (6-4) fell behind before spotting a fastball for strike one. He then went to his other out pitch, the slider, trying to get out of the inning with that.

"I think that was more of a mental mistake there, even throwing a pitch anywhere he could hit it," said Porcello.

Bad pitch, Porcello argued, and bad execution. Ichiro took the pitch the other way, scored Figgins and kept the rally going. Brendan Ryan beat out a bunt single that set up Tiger killer Justin Smoak, whose blooper to left scored Ichiro and put Seattle in front.

That, Porcello said, was the difference. His manager disagreed.

"I thought he pitched a great game," Jim Leyland said. "He did exactly what he needed to do, keep them down, give us a shot against a great pitcher, and we had a good shot. Really, the add-on runs were the killer, the walk to a left-handed hitter in the eighth, the two-run homer and then another one in the ninth. Those were the killers."

The two-run homer was Olivo, again, who pounced on Joaquin Benoit's first pitch to open up a three-run lead after Daniel Schlereth walked Carlos Peguero. The other homer came from Smoak, also a two-run shot, off lefty Adam Wilk to give Seattle a four-run advantage and all but put the game out of reach.

"We made a couple mistakes," Leyland said. "That's the simple facts of it."

That's not how to beat Hernandez (7-5), who worked in and out of trouble, scattering three runs on nine hits over eight innings. Alex Avila had a pair of two-out RBI singles, while Martinez added another.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Santiago's triple in 10th gives Tigers win

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/14/2011 12:47 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The original version of Monday's Tigers-Rays tilt saw Detroit with a two-run lead before storms washed out the game. It took two and a half weeks, extra innings and a controversial call, but the Tigers finally got their two runs back.

Once Victor Martinez made it from first to home on Ramon Santiago's triple in the 10th inning, that second run was enough for a 2-1 win. It was worth the wait, and not just for the deadlock it preserved atop the American League Central.

"It's a great win for us," Santiago said. "Any win, anyhow for us, is very important for us. We have to grind out every game."

The win ensures that Detroit enters its three-game showdown series against Cleveland on Tuesday night in a virtual tie atop the division. The Indians won a 1-0 game over the Yankees on Monday night in the Bronx.

It also ensures that, barring a rainout, one team is going to end up alone atop the division when the series is over. But as the Tigers were struggling to hold onto their 1-0 lead, then trying to get the winning run across once Tampa Bay tied it, the Tribe wasn't their main concern.

"You know what? We're just taking it day by day, game by game," Martinez said. "Doesn't matter who we're playing. We just play hard and let things happen."

This was originally supposed to be a day when nothing happened. It was a scheduled off-day for the Tigers until storm clouds washed out these two teams May 25 in the third inning with a 2-0 Tigers lead. While the makeup game fell in the middle of a Tigers homestand, it added one more stop to a Rays road trip that already took them to Seattle, Anaheim and Baltimore.

Martinez's journey from first to home to close out his trip only seemed to cover that kind of distance.

"Did somebody get Victor some oxygen? He looked like he was going to pass out when he got in there," starter Phil Coke joked.

Coke was long since in the clubhouse once the 10th inning started. He was still in the dugout in the seventh when the Rays flipped out over losing the tying run.

With the bases loaded, one out and a full count, Casey Kotchman lofted a high fly ball into shallow right field. Magglio Ordonez, who just returned from the disabled list earlier in the day, camped under it for the catch, then fired a strike to home plate on one hop as Justin Ruggiano slid home.

Ruggiano tried to slide around Tigers catcher Alex Avila, who was blocking the plate, and seemingly did so successfully. But Triple-A umpire John Tumpane, who filled in for Mike Winters on the crew, called him out. Replays suggested Avila missed his tag attempt as Ruggiano slid by, then didn't actually tag him until after Ruggiano had touched home plate.

Ruggiano hopped up incredulous at the ruling before Rays manager Joe Maddon emerged from the dugout and got in between him and Tumpane. Maddon was soon ejected.

"The replay speaks for itself," Maddon said.

Avila hadn't seen it after the game, and wasn't interested.

"Coming around, I thought I might have gotten him on the foot, but I wasn't sure," Avila said. "And he called him out, so he's out."

Three Tampa Bay singles and a sacrifice fly off former Rays reliever Joaquin Benoit in the eighth rendered the contested call moot. Fittingly, the sac fly came from Ruggiano, and it went deep enough that right field defensive replacement Casper Wells didn't have a play at the plate.

That set the game toward extra innings. And it made Santiago, a defensive replacement in the eighth at second base, into a much-needed hitter.

Rays closer Kyle Farnsworth, a Tigers reliever in 2005 and '08, started the 10th inning with a called third strike on former teammate Miguel Cabrera, and he tried to get Martinez to chase fastballs inside and out once he got into a 1-2 count. With the count full, Farnsworth tried to challenge him with a sinker on the outside corner, which Martinez pulled through the right side for his second hit of the game.

"I was just trying to get on base," said Martinez, one of three Tigers with two hits.

"I was ready for a fastball early in the count," Santiago said. "If I let him get on top, he uses maybe his changeup, his slider in that situation. With Victor on first, I tried to get a fastball and tried to hit it on the sweet spot."

He got all of it, driving the ball into the gap in right-center. Martinez, who watched Avila triple twice last Thursday against the Mariners, got to do his own three-base dash.

"You know what, man? I was just head-down running, see what happens," Martinez said. "I wasn't going to stop, even though it was just one out."

He had Santiago's attention.

"I was pulling for him," Santiago said. "I wasn't focused on running the bases. I was focused more on Victor than me."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.