2011 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

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.

Verlander two-hits Tribe, hurls Tigers into first
Detroit ace takes no-hitter into eighth, fans 12 Indians

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By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/15/2011 1:15 AM ET

DETROIT -- On a clear June night at Comerica Park, a Tigers pitcher held down the Indians' lineup and nearly made history. But this time there was no Armando Galarraga, and there was no controversial call at first base to bail out Cleveland.

The Tigers had Justin Verlander with an upper-90s fastball, a curveball he could spot for strikes and a changeup that left hitters waving. The Indians had Orlando Cabrera, a .325 hitter off Verlander going into the night.

Cabrera got to the Detroit ace with a one-out single in the eighth, denying Verlander's bid to become the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to throw two no-hitters in one regular season. Verlander didn't get the history, but he got a 4-0 shutout on a two-hit performance.

The Tigers, in turn, got sole possession of first place in the American League Central by taking the opener of this division clash. They're alone atop the division standings for the first time since July 10. The Indians fell out of first for the first time since April 6.

"Obviously, it's early in the season," Verlander said, "but you have to get there at some point. Hopefully we never turn back."

That doesn't mean Verlander can't look back to his night and wonder what almost was. The way he was pitching -- and Indians hitters were reacting -- it was difficult not to start thinking that he had it.

"Some of the swings they were taking -- I thought I had a decent shot," Verlander said.

He wasn't the only one.

"Oh yeah," shortstop Ramon Santiago said. "The way he was throwing the ball, I thought he was going to get it."

Alex Avila caught Verlander when he no-hit the Blue Jays on May 7 at Rogers Centre, and again when he took a no-hitter into the sixth against the Royals six days later. His batterymate at least had a feeling.

"By the fifth with him, when he's just cruising like that, it's not hard to notice," Avila said.

It happened just a short drive from the site of Tiger Stadium, where Ryan tossed his second no-hitter in 1973. Tigers first baseman Norm Cash provided the one highlight for Detroit that day when he stepped to the plate with a table leg he had taken from the clubhouse, providing a statement about just how dominant Ryan was before the umpire sent him back to get a real bat.

The Indians didn't go for the furniture, but the game had that feeling.

For six innings, the only Indian to reach base safely seemed to do so at Verlander's will. Catcher Carlos Santana, batting second in manager Manny Acta's revised lineup, took back-to-back brushback pitches, the second of which hit him. It seemed to be a reaction to something that went on during the Tigers' visit to Cleveland at the end of April, whether it was Santana's reaction to a walk-off homer to open that series or a hit-by-pitch to Miguel Cabrera at the end.

"Missed my spot," Verlander said.

It was one of the rare times that he did. The one hit he gave up was another, and it wasn't by nearly as much.

Seven of Cleveland's first 12 batters struck out, including four in a row into the fourth inning. Seven of the nine batters in the Tribe's starting lineup struck out, the exceptions being Cabrera and Matt LaPorta. Grady Sizemore struck out four times in as many chances, including on a nasty curveball on the outside corner to take the no-hitter through the sixth.

"He was dominant," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "He had every one of his pitches working and throwing for a strike -- every one of them. He started early with the one sequence, and later on, he changed, but it didn't matter, because he was throwing all his pitches for strikes and every one of his pitches are above to way-above average."

The one Cleveland hitter to force a defensive gem was Shin-Soo Choo, whose drive to left-center took center fielder Austin Jackson to the fence before he made a leaping catch. Replays suggested the ball probably wouldn't have been a home run, but it would've at least been a hit.

With that taken away, Verlander started cruising.

"I got my curveball going pretty good and my changeup pretty good," Verlander said. "When I've got those two working, and my fastball's usually there, it's kind of tough on hitters, I would think, when I can change speeds and elevate and do what I want to do."

Michael Brantley's one-out walk in the seventh gave Cleveland another baserunner, but a swift reaction from Miguel Cabrera turned Asdrubal Cabrera's ground ball to first into an inning-ending double play and a no-hit bid through seven.

Danny Worth, inserted at third base as a defensive replacement, bobbled Choo's grounder but quickly recovered for the out to start the eighth. Enter Orlando Cabrera, who went 7-for-14 off Verlander two years ago but didn't face him last year as a Cincinnati Red.

Verlander had induced a groundout from him on a first-pitch fastball in the second inning, and in the fifth he followed up a 96-mph heater with a curveball that Cabrera grounded to third. The second baseman was one of just two Indians to connect on the curveball, which drew 18 called strikes, according to data on MLB.com Gameday and brooksbaseball.net.

Once Cabrera fouled off the curveball for strike one in the eighth, Verlander brought a 99-mph fastball on the outside corner. Cabrera lined it into center field.

"Cabrera put a good swing on the pitch," Verlander said. "Sometimes you just tip your cap, and that's one of them. The fastball was up a little bit -- more than I would've liked -- but still on the outside corner, and he had a pretty good swing."

Said Cabrera: "With that guy, you have to feel lucky anytime you get a hit."

Verlander (8-3) took the applause then finished the job, striking out 12 batters while using 117 pitches. The only other hit was Santana's liner to left with two out in the ninth.

Three Tigers runs in the third inning, including an Andy Dirks RBI single, provided more-than-enough support for the victory.

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.

After dropping early lead, Tigers fall to Tribe

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/16/2011 1:22 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Brad Penny had to figure he was living right early in his outing Wednesday night. He watched Carlos Santana's drive to right field go foul in the first inning, saw Asrubal Cabrera's drive to left field die in the wind and fall to Brennan Boesch at the fence in the second, then watched Jack Hannahan's drive to left do the same four batters later.

When he saw Orlando Cabrera chop a ball over third baseman Don Kelly's head in the fourth inning, his immediate reaction was a lot different, and it wasn't particularly quotable.

Though long reliever Charlie Furbush ended up with the decision in the Tigers' 6-4 loss to the Indians on Wednesday, Penny was the one with the damage from the blown three-run lead. None of it came on any particularly crushing blow. His outs, in many cases, were hit harder than the hits he allowed.

"It was a tough day," Penny said. "Tonight, ground balls just got through, for whatever reason."

The impact on the standings is the same. One night after Justin Verlander nearly no-hit the Indians to put Detroit alone atop the American League Central, Cleveland's struggling offense awakened from its June swoon to put it back in a tie. The Indians, with one fewer win and one fewer loss, technically have the lead by percentage points. But whoever wins Thursday's series finale will leave town with the division lead.

Only once in Penny's 12-year career had he given up eight hits in less than four innings. Half of those hits were for extra bases. On Wednesday, none of the hits off Penny were. The only extra-base hit for Cleveland was the one that put the Tribe ahead for good, a double by Orlando Cabrera down the left-field line to score Shin-Soo Choo in the fifth.

"It wasn't a good pitch by me," Furbush said." I left the slider up the zone. I'd expect anyone to hit that pitch."

It was easier for him to take than the damage off Penny that led up to it.

The only other time the Tigers blew a three-run lead in a loss this season, Carlos Santana was admiring his walk-off grand slam on April 29 at Progressive Field. Detroit built an early lead in that one but left a lot of runners on base with chances to put the game away.

Same teams, different venue, more runners stranded for Detroit, including the bases loaded in the third inning as mercurial Indians sinkerballer Fausto Carmona struggled to locate. Former Indian Jhonny Peralta, 3-for-6 with the bases loaded going into the night, flew out to right to end the third inning after his ground ball to third stranded two runners in the first.

As it stood, Brennan Boesch's ninth home run of the year, and fifth in his last 13 games, along with Alex Avila's two-run single, stood as all the runs in a 33-pitch opening inning for Carmona.

Unlike April, though, there was no crushing blow for the Indians. More like death from smaller cuts.

"The momentum is pitching," manager Jim Leyland said. "Last night we pitched better than they did, and tonight they pitched better than we did. We had Carmona on the ropes. We just didn't do anything with the bullpen."

Maybe on a warmer, calmer night, Hannahan's second-inning drive would've carried for a three-run homer, but it died this time, helping Penny strand two runners before escaping more damage in the third. Once the heart of the Indians came up in the fourth, though, Penny never got back around to the top.

Four straight Indians reached base safely, the first three of them with two strikes. All of them hit singles on the ground, though Orlando Cabrera's chopper spent far more time in the air.

The curveball I threw to [Asdrubal Cabrera] wasn't a bad pitch," Penny said. "It was down. Alex was going down to block it in the dirt, and he hit it up the middle for a hit."

Matt LaPorta hit a hanging changeup for a single to drive him in. Orlando Cabrera's chopper, however, seemed to change the course of the inning.

"The one that really stunk was Cabrera," Penny said. "I'm trying to get a double play, and he bounces it over the third baseman's head."

Kelly knew the feeling. He's 6-foot-4, but the ball bounced so high that all he could do was watch. It was the kind of hit the Tigers thought they'd left behind when the Twins moved out of the Metrodome and its hard artificial surface.

"Nothing you can do," Kelly said. "It just took off."

Once Hannahan's sacrifice bunt set up Lou Marson's RBI single, the game was tied, and Penny was gone. Grady Sizemore's sacrifice fly on an 0-2 pitch from Furbush put the Indians ahead briefly before Ramon Santiago singled, broke up a potential double play that ended up with both runners being safe and scored to tie it up again.

Carmona (4-8) gave up four runs on eight hits over five innings, yet survived for the win.

"He gave them a chance to win," Avila said. "There were chances we could've blown it open a little bit and gotten a little bit bigger lead, but he did his job and held us to the three runs there and gave them a chance."

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 Tribe, regain perch atop Central

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/16/2011 6:35 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The American League Central showdown in Motown began with Justin Verlander nearly no-hitting the Indians two days ago. Max Scherzer ended it by avoiding disaster in the first inning on Thursday.

If the Tigers are going to eventually make something out of their one-game lead in the AL Central, which they earned with a 6-2 win over the Indians at Comerica Park, those two right-handers are going to be a big part of it. So, too, will the one right-hander in the bullpen who doesn't have a late-inning role.

After Scherzer turned what was shaping up as a disastrous opening inning into just a short-lived two-run Cleveland lead, he found the form that has earned him his spot among the Major League wins leaders. Once the fireballer slowed down in the sixth inning, Al Alburquerque came out of the bullpen and stranded the bases loaded to leave the potential tying run at the plate.

The result was a one-game advantage for Detroit over Cleveland as both teams headed out of town. The third-place White Sox fell to 5 1/2 games back after their loss at Minnesota.

"Right now, we're playing pretty well. We're coming together," Scherzer said. "But the thing is, we still have another 100. We have to grind it out and get these series wins."

The Tigers have won five straight series, plus a single-game makeup date against Tampa Bay. Scherzer has had victories in the last three series, covering his last three starts, to rebound from a mid-May slump that had cost him his unbeaten start.

While Verlander is swaying minds as possibly the best pitcher in baseball right now, Scherzer has a statistical claim as the winningest. His third straight win -- and ninth of the season -- moved him into a tie with Boston's Jon Lester and Phillies hurlers Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels atop the big leagues.

When manager Jim Leyland talked about Scherzer's adjustments from his last start, he said that the right-hander works as hard between starts as any pitcher he has managed. Scherzer's success Thursday had a lot to do with the work he put in to survive early.

What looked like a routine opening inning for him busted open once Michael Brantley worked the count full and turned on a fastball hard enough to get it past Miguel Cabrera at first and down the right-field line. Brantley made it to third for a triple, but he was awarded home after Ryan Raburn's attempt to throw him out at third ended up in the dugout.

Four pitches later, Asdrubal Cabrera survived an 0-2 count and launched a Scherzer changeup into right-center field for a double. One batter later, Scherzer challenged Shin-Soo Choo with a fastball and paid the price, as Choo drilled the ball off the wall in right-center for another run.

"Stuff like that's going to happen," Scherzer said. "That's baseball. You try to control the things you can control. There's a 3-2 count [to Brantley], and I had to challenge him with a fastball, and he hit it. I thought I made a decent pitch to Cabrera on the 1-2 changeup. It was down, but he went down and got it. He hit it. You tip your hat to him there. And I gave Choo a pitch to hit in a hitter's count. That's where you get hurt.

"But at the same time, that's where you've got to battle and make sure that's it. If you can [do that], that's a good outing. For the most part, even though I wasn't able to work ahead with first-pitch strikes and stuff, I was still able to locate down in the zone and keep them from having any big hits."

The only other hit Scherzer (9-2) allowed was a fifth-inning double to former teammate Adam Everett. A Don Kelly error and a plunking of Grady Sizemore comprised his only other baserunners through the fifth.

"He got into a good groove after that [first inning]," Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. "I've seen him better. Usually he's a guy who can be dominant, too, but after the first inning, we had a couple opportunities there."

Scherzer escaped the first by retiring Matt LaPorta, who fouled out to strand Choo on third. By the time Scherzer took the mound again, he had a new game thanks to two Tigers runs on four straight baserunners.

The Tigers actually could've had a first-inning lead, but a hard-hit Magglio Ordonez liner became an inning-ending double play with a catch and flip from Asdrubal Cabrera. Once former Indian Jhonny Peralta and Raburn hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the fourth, the issue became moot.

"They hit them at the right time," Leyland said. "The wind was blowing out that way a little bit."

RBI singles from Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez built the eventual final margin in the fifth, but it took one more escape once two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases in the sixth. Up came Everett, and out came Leyland to pull Scherzer, not wanting to take chances with the potential tying run at the plate.

With Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde working the late innings, Leyland has had to choose his spots carefully with Alburquerque, who said Thursday he had been rehabbing his way through elbow discomfort last week.

To put Alburquerque into a situation where a walk would bring in a run could have been a risky proposition not long ago, particularly when a groundout is the same as a strikeout. But after Alburquerque located his first-pitch slider for strike one, Everett flew out to right on the next.

"If he throws it over, he has the best chance to get Adam Everett out, unless you're talking about Benoit or Valverde," Leyland said. "He's doing fine."

So are the Tigers, for the way they're playing seems more important than where they happen to reside in the standings. They'll still gladly take first place.

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, Tigers de-clawed in opener

By Nick Kosmider / MLB.com | 6/18/2011 1:09 AM ET

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DENVER -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland thought he was returning to a different Coors Field on Friday, one that is no longer supposed to be a haven for the pitching nightmare it was when he managed the Rockies back in 1999.

But the opener of a three-game Interleague series in front of 41,594 produced the reprisal of bad memories for Leyland, whose pitching staff got hammered by a red-hot Rockies offense in a 13-6 loss.

Starter Rick Porcello retired the Rockies in order in the first, but that would be the lone bright spot in an outing that saw the right-hander yield nine runs -- six earned -- on eight hits, as he exited after just three innings.

But Porcello said his rough start had little to do with pitching at Coors Field -- a venue Leyland said used to make games look like "slow-pitch softball" contests before the so-called humidor was introduced in 2002 -- but was instead the result of poor fastball command.

"The ballpark, or [the fact] that the ball flies here, that didn't have any affect on me," Porcello said. "I'm pretty sure they would have scored nine runs if we were in Comerica [Park], too, so that's just the way it was. I wasn't effective. It was a terrible start, really."

Most of the damage against Porcello (6-5) came during a six-run Rockies second, which was highlighted by Chris Nelson's first Major League home run, a three-run shot to left field.

Porcello had a chance to limit the damage after Carlos Gonzalez's sacrifice fly plated the third run of the inning. But with a pair of runners on, Nelson got ahold of a 2-2 fastball and hooked it inside the left-field foul pole, giving the Rockies a 6-1 lead.

The inning was also fueled by a walk to Rockies starting pitcher Jason Hammel, which accounted for the most frustrating sequence of the night for Porcello.

"I had a stretch there where I kind of lost command of my fastball," the right-hander said. "He's the pitcher for God sakes. I'm trying to throw that ball right down the middle. I'm not afraid to admit that -- I just didn't get it done. That's just the way this night was."

Leyland lamented his team's inability to put up its own crooked number in the first, when they scored just one run despite collecting a leadoff single from Austin Jackson and three walks (one intentional).

"The first inning was critical for us," the Tigers skipper said. "We had an opportunity right away to really get something on the board, and we came away with one. That turned out to be disastrous for us. We had an inning going there, possibly, where we could have got four or five.

"We had the right guys up there early on. You get one run in this ballpark, and that usually spells disaster."

The Tigers' only other offense came in the sixth, when Jhonny Peralta followed singles by Victor Martinez and Magglio Ordonez and a walk to Alex Avila with his third career grand slam, which just cleared the left-field wall beyond the outstretched glove of rookie left fielder Charlie Blackmon.

The newbie Blackmon went 4-for-4 to raise his average to .410 since making his Major League debut on June 7, but he lamented his inability to keep Peralta's long drive in the ballpark.

"I didn't do a very good job," Blackmon said. "I got to the wall, and then I was in the wrong part of the wall. At the time I thought I would have to climb up and get it. But I think I could've just jumped and caught it. I didn't need to push off the fence."

But even with Peralta's ball clearing the fence, the Tigers couldn't keep pace with the Rockies' red-hot bats, which notched double-digit hits (14) for the eighth time in the last nine games.

The Rockies added three unearned runs in the third after an error by third baseman Alex Aliva, who was making his first professional start at the position.

Leyland said Aliva's error had no affect on the outcome of the game, but added that he was unsure whether Aliva would start again at third base during the second game of the series on Saturday.

Colorado tacked on four more runs off of reliever Adam Wilk -- including one on Carlos Gonzalez's one-out homer to right-center in the fifth, his 10th -- during the left-hander's four innings of work, but Leyland credited Wilk with being able to eat up innings, giving Detroit the opportunity to rest a taxed bullpen.

"I thought Adam Wilk did a great job," Leyland said. "We were two relievers short tonight, so we had the double switch [with Ramon Santiago entering the game to play second base], and let him pitch some innings."

Rockies starter Jason Hammel (4-6) pitched better than the six runs he allowed over 6 1/3 innings would indicate. After a 30-pitch first inning, the right-hander faced just one over the minimum until the sixth, when the Tigers singled twice and walked in front of Peralta's grand slam. Hammel walked four and struck out a pair.

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

Tigers can't get over hump against Rockies

By Jack Etkin / Special to MLB.com | 6/19/2011 1:13 AM ET

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DENVER -- One season 12 years ago as the Rockies manager, gave Jim Leyland a simple gauge for measuring the effectiveness of a starting pitcher at Coors Field.

"If you're a starting pitcher here, you want to be ahead of the team when you come out of the game," said Leyland, the Tigers manager. "If you've done that, in most cases you've done a pretty good job."

By that standard, Tigers starter Phil Coke, who issued a career-high seven walks, came up short and was a reason the Tigers lost, 5-4 on Saturday. They will try to avoid being swept in the three-game series Sunday behind ace Justin Verlander.

The Tigers rallied in the ninth against closer Huston Street but left the potential tying run on base. Street got the first two outs of the inning before walking pinch-hitter Alex Avila. He took second on defensive indifference and scored on Brennan Boesh's single. Street worked ahead of Miguel Cabrera, 0-2, and got him to fly to left-center on his next pitch, which was a slider.

"It was a good pitch to hit," said Cabrera, who has 13 homers and 47 RBIs. "I didn't hit it good."

Street is 20-for-22 in save opportunities and has converted six straight chances since his last blown save on May 20. The Tigers made Street squirm a bit before falling to 7-7 in one-run games overall and 1-5 on the road.

"We got the winning run at the plate and the tying run at second and the right guy up there." Leyland said. "He just didn't hit it far enough. I knew it wasn't going. The minute he hit it, I knew it was an out."

Coke issued his first two walks with two out in the second before giving up a two-run single on a first-pitch fastball to pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez in what became a three-run inning. The first walk was to left-handed-hitting rookie Charlie Blackmon, followed by a walk to Chris Iannetta, who has hit nine homers.

"I can see [walking] Iannetta a little bit more," Leyland said. "He's got some power. And you're being a little bit careful. You don't want a two-out, two-run homer to the catcher with the pitcher on deck. You got to bury that inning. You got two quick outs and got a left-handed hitter up, you got to bury that inning."

Jimenez had been hitless in 20 previous at-bats, with 12 strikeouts.

"I said, 'I'm just going to close my eyes and swing and as hard as I can," said Jimenez, who left the game with a right calf cramp after giving up two singles to start the sixth. "I knew he was going to throw a fastball, especially after walking Iannetta. I'm a pitcher, and I don't have a hit on the season, so they're guessing I don't hit at all."

Carlos Gonzalez followed Jimenez's hit with a broken-bat single that scored Iannetta to make it 3-0.

This was the fifth straight losing decision for Coke, who is 1-7 with a 4.68 ERA and has made 10 straight winless starts since his lone victory on April 14 at Oakland.

"I can't say that I was consistent at any given point in time during the game, in release point or fluidity of my mechanics or anything like that," Coke said. "I'm pleased that I was able to keep the damage as low as I was able throughout the game, but at the same time, I've got to be better than that. And I've got to give us a better chance to win a ballgame than I did."

The Tigers also had two runners thrown out at the plate and just after they managed to get within a run of the Rockies by scoring two in the sixth, left-hander Charlie Furbush gave up a deflating homer in the bottom of that inning.

The homer by Chris Nelson was the second of his career and second in two games. Nelson, who drove Furbush's 2-0 fastball into the left-field stands, hit a three-run shot on Friday.

Aftter Jimenez left in the sixth, Matt Lindstrom came on to face Jhonny Peralta. He knocked down Peralta's sharp one-hopper, but the ball bounced to Lindstrom's right, and he had no play, loading the bases with no out. Ryan Raburn, hitting just .153 (15-for-98) with 33 strikeouts in his previous 31 games, lined an 0-2 pitch into the gap in right-center for a two-run double.

Peralta, the potential tying run, tried to score from first but was cut down on the plate as catcher Iannetta took a hit from Peralta but held shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's relay throw.

Referring to his longtime third base coach Gene Lamont, Leyland said, "I think Gene wishes he had that one back. Now with two outs, no. But with no outs ... he'd probably like to have that one back."

Peralta doubled home the Tigers' first run in the fourth, when they had their first runner thrown out at the plate. Cabrera led off the inning with a walk and reached third when Victor Martinez followed with a single. Andy Dirks grounded to Todd Helton, who stepped on first base and threw to Tulowitzki. Cabrera waited until Helton threw and then broke for home, but Tulowitzki rifled the ball there, just ahead of the sliding Cabrera.

"Cabrera was between a rock and a hard place," Leyland said. "If he goes right away, he's out. It's a double play no matter what. If Miguel doesn't go, [Helton] steps on the bag and he throws to second and they tag the guy. Now if he gets in a rundown something else might have happened."

No such luck for the Tigers, who will look to Verlander but who, as Cabrera said, can only do so much.

"We got to score anyway," Cabrera said. "We got to play better. We got to do little things."

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

Ad-Justin to a higher altitude

By Jack Etkin / Special to MLB.com | 6/19/2011 8:55 PM ET

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DENVER -- Still in search of his first major league hit, Tigers ace Justin Verlander lined a ball to right field in the fourth inning Sunday. For an instant, the drought appeared over, and the keepsake ball for Verlander was going to be tossed to the Tigers' dugout.

But Rockies right fielder Seth Smith backpedaled and reached up to make the catch, much to the relief of Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

After Verlander threw a complete game four-hitter, tied his career-high with his seventh straight win and dominated the Rockies in a 9-1 rout, Leyland said of his ace, "I was glad it wasn't a hit, to be honest with you, because if it got over his head, it would've been a triple and he'd have been out of gas."

Instead, Verlander never appeared winded in his first start at Coors Field. He finished with 110 pitches, 71 strikes for his fourth complete game of the season and second in succession.

The victory enabled the Tigers to avoid being swept in the three-game series. In losses by scores of 13-6 and 5-4, starters Rick Porcello and Phil Coke combined to pitch just eight innings. Enter Verlander, who is 9-3 with a 2.54 ERA and won for the sixth time after a Tigers loss.

"I think he just had a chip on his shoulder." Leyland said. "Everyone talks about how tough it is to pitch here, and I think he had his mind set that he was going to pitch a shutout."

The complete game was the first by an opposing pitcher at Coors Field this season. The Rockies were held to four hits -- Ty Wigginton's homer in the fifth and three singles -- which is their second-lowest hit total at home this year. They were held to three hits on April 19 by Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez and three relievers.

"We certainly got beat today by as good a pitcher as we've seen all year," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

Verlander, who last lost April 27, struck out five and didn't walk anyone. During his seven-game winning streak, which spans nine starts dating back to May 7, Verlander has a 1.73 ERA (72 2/3 innings, 14 earned runs).

"You just don't find stuff like that," Leyland said of Verlander. "You don't find a combination of fastball, curve, changeup and slider. Three of them are well above average and one of them's average [the slider]. That's pretty tough. When he locates his fastball, he can be unhittable."

Asked about Leyland's comment that Verlander was bound and determined to pitch well at Coors Field, Verlander said, "I'd never pitched here. So I wouldn't say there was anything in overcoming the park. You can maybe say that if I had pitched here and struggled in the past. It was a big game for us, after a couple tough losses. So I was excited to get out there and try to turn the tides."

The Tigers gave Verlander a 1-0 lead in the second when Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta singled against Aaron Cook. Avila moved to third when Andy Dirks grounded into a fielder's choice and scored on Ryan Rayburn's single.

Brennan Boesch, who went 3-for-4 with a home run, was hit with a pitch to open the third. Miguel Cabrera followed with a double, and Avila made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly. With two outs, Dirks singled, scoring Cabrera.

Don Kelly tripled home a run in the fourth, and the Tigers made it 7-1 with three runs in the seventh, aided by errors by right fielder Seth Smith and pitcher Rex Brothers and a passed ball by Matt Pagnozzi, who made his Rockies debut. Boesch and Miguel Cabrera hit back-to-back homers in the ninth off Clayton Mortensen, giving Verlander a 9-1 cushion. He wrapped up his 14th career complete game by striking out pinch hitter Ryan Spilborghs and retiring Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki on fly outs.

With a 1-0 lead in the second, Verlander gave up a leadoff single to Tulowitzki, who reached second on Verlander's throwing error on a pickoff attempt. Smith's grounder to first base moved Tulowitzki, but Verlander struck out Wigginton and got Charlie Blackmon to ground out. Those three at-bats in the second were the Rockies only three with a runner in scoring position against Verlander.

The Tigers' ace entered the game hitless in 16 career at-bats with 10 strikeouts. Verlander struck out swinging in the second and eighth, and on a foul bunt in the sixth.

But leading off the fourth, after Cook knocked him down with a high-and-tight pitch, Verlander got up and there was that sweet moment of hard contact. For an instant the ball looked like it was going to sail over Smith's head. And if it had, might Verlander have ended up with a triple for his first big league hit?

"I got out of the box pretty good," Verlander said. "I got some wheels, so..."

When told afterward that Leyland was glad his ace didn't break his career hitless drought with that drive to right field in the fourth, Verlander smiled and said, "I'm pretty upset with him right now. First I've heard about that. I'm probably going to have a word with him on the plane."

Namely, the plane to Los Angeles where the Tigers will play a three-game series and finish Interleague Play on the road. That means Verlander, now 0-for-20 with 13 strikeouts lifetime, if he thinks about hitting, will have only that line drive to right in Coors Field to remember.

"All for naught." Verlander said. "Just another 0-for in the book for another year."

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

Tigers cut down by Kershaw's shutout in LA

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/21/2011 2:47 AM ET

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LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes, Tigers manager Jim Leyland said more than once this year, contending teams have to beat good pitchers.

Good teams can beat good pitchers, Leyland is apt to say, if their own pitcher pitches well, and they can run into a big hit for a run or two.

He said none of that Monday night. Instead, his remarks after Detroit's 4-0 loss to the Dodgers could be summed up in four words.

"We had no shot," he said at one point.

For Leyland to say that means a lot. He didn't even say that after Matt Garza no-hit the Tigers last July. He said more than that Monday about Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw and his two-hitter.

"We just ran into a buzzsaw, ran into an opposing pitcher that's really good and had a great night," Leyland said. "When the good ones are really on like he was tonight, he was lights-out. ... That's as fine an opposing pitcher as I've seen all year."

The loss kept Detroit one game behind Cleveland in the American League Central standings. The Indians lost to the Rockies earlier Monday evening.

Leyland could've talked about the other issues that furthered the Tigers' downfall. He pounded home the point that lefty reliever Daniel Schlereth needs to throw strikes with his fastball, the lack of which helped set up two add-on runs in the eighth inning. He could've also mentioned the Tigers' struggles to retire opposing pitchers, centered around the fact that Kershaw singled in those two add-on runs and outscored the Tigers on his own. Having Ryan Raburn picked off of third base for the third out after a leadoff double also couldn't have helped.

Those were contributing factors, but not the cause.

"There's nothing to talk about this game," Leyland said. "He just overmatched us. I mean, he was brilliant, and that's all you can say."

Until Monday, Garza was the only pitcher to throw a shutout against the Tigers since 2006, when Jon Garland and Jose Contreras did it. Garza, Leyland said that July night at Tropicana Field, threw high fastballs and dared Tigers hitters to chase them, which they did.

What Kershaw did, Leyland and other Tigers said, was different. It was vastly different than the other left-handers this year that have crossed paths with Detroit, a team that has shown it can hit left-handed pitchers with its lineup of right-handed hitters in the middle of the order. Detroit was 14-6 against lefty starters this year, but none of them pitched like this.

"Throwing hard, good off-speed, good command," Leyland said. "You can't pitch any better than that. That's as fine a pitcher as I've seen pitch against us all year. ... We didn't play bad. We just didn't hit a real good pitcher that had an extraordinarily good night.

"We had a good report on him. He pitched exactly like I thought he would. He was overpowering. He mixed enough of his other stuff to keep you honest, but he was overpowering. He was tremendous. That's all you can say."

Casper Wells' role is to hit left-handed pitchers. He had half of Detroit's hits when he connected on a fourth-inning curveball and lined it back through the middle. It was the only time he put a ball in play all night amidst three of Kershaw's 11 strikeouts.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," Wells said. "He was dominant. He had this little slider thing. It didn't even move that much. It just dropped right in front of the plate. He's primarily a guy who throws a lot of fastballs, and really, it just seemed like he could throw five pitches for a strike. He had a curveball, slider, changeup, fastball. He could throw any pitch at any time. That's tough."

That's about as close as the Tigers have seen to their own ace, Justin Verlander, and his variety of pitches. But Kershaw is left-handed.

"He would have liked to pitch against Verlander today," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, "because he's one of the best in the other league. He loves the challenge."

Brad Penny could've given them a report. He was a Dodger during Kershaw's rookie year, part of Penny's five-year stint in Los Angeles that included back-to-back 16-win seasons. He won here with quite a few starts like he had Monday, with two runs over six innings.

Instead, he trailed three batters into his outing and stayed behind the rest of the night.

"He's good," Penny said. "He's really good. I'd like to tell you I taught him everything."

Penny had several hard-hit drives that seemingly died in the Southern California evening air. But Juan Uribe's launch to left field in the first wasn't one of them, going for a solo homer that gave Los Angeles a lead that Kershaw would not relinquish.

Sixth-inning doubles from James Loney and Dioner Navarro accounted for the other Dodgers run off Penny, who allowed seven hits and three walks.

Kershaw took his runs and went with them, allowing just two Tigers to reach scoring position over eight innings. Ryan Raburn's leadoff double in the third inning represented Detroit's best shot, but after Danny Worth's groundout moved Raburn to third, Kershaw struck out Penny for the second out. With Austin Jackson at bat, Navarro ended the inning by catching Raburn too far off third base and picking him off.

When asked about the missed opportunity, Leyland shrugged.

"Doesn't matter what part of the order was up tonight. We got two hits," he said. "I mean, it's that simple. There's really nothing to say. You can't be mad about a game like this. I thought Penny pitched well. He certainly gave us a chance against a really good pitcher to win the game. But the guy was just dominant."

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 as Scherzer denied bid for 10th win

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/22/2011 3:11 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Max Scherzer hasn't been as dominant as his record would suggest, even though he was trying to become the Majors' first 10-game winner Tuesday night. He probably isn't as far off as Tuesday's 6-1 Tigers loss to the Dodgers might suggest, either.

There's a middle ground in there, and Scherzer has arguably been spending a good portion of his season in it. He had won his previous three starts before Tuesday's loss, yet it was the third time in his last six outings that he gave up six runs or more.

No other pitcher in baseball with at least eight wins has a higher ERA than Scherzer's 4.61 mark, and his 13 home runs over 95 2/3 innings mark one of the highest ratios among that same group. Yet he has also has three gems of at least seven innings without an earned run this year.

He gave up a no-doubt two-run home run to Andre Ethier on a 3-0 pitch that helped break open a close game in the fifth inning. Yet it was a 25-foot dribbler that Tony Gwynn beat out with two outs that gave the Dodgers the lead in the fourth after Victor Martinez's RBI single had briefly tied the game.

Try to sum up his season right now, and it's difficult for most anyone, including him.

"It's a combination of everything," Scherzer said. "Some of those hits, that's baseball. You live with it. You turn the page and move on. Sometimes, they're going to hit the ball right at people. But for me, it's all about what happens the next start."

What he means to the Tigers and their chances to contend, though, is pretty simple.

"We think if Scherzer gets to the top of his game -- he's good, but he's not at the top of his game just yet -- if he gets to the top of his game ... I like the one-two punch of [Justin] Verlander and Scherzer pretty much [as much] as anybody in baseball when they're both right," manager Jim Leyland said on Monday. "Now, are they both going to be right? I can't tell you what's going to happen. But that's pretty good."

Verlander is as good or better than any pitcher in baseball right now, and he has been for more than a month. His painstaking attention to detail helps keep him that way. Scherzer has a similar perfectionist streak in him.

During the Tigers' last homestand, Leyland said Scherzer works as hard as any pitcher he has managed. He worked like crazy to try to keep his team and himself in the game Tuesday. But his fate might best have been summed up in three situations.

Gwynn's go-ahead single came after Scherzer used two ground balls -- and an acrobatic effort from Alex Avila to stay on home plate -- to get out of a bases-loaded jam two innings earlier. It seemed like Gwynn's squibber would be another key to an escape, but the ball was hit just soft enough that Scherzer had to scramble off the mound for it, allowing Gwynn to fly down the first-base line and beat the throw.

"That was a situation I needed to execute in, and I executed," Scherzer said. "You can't beat yourself up over that AB. Sometimes the hitters will find a way to do just enough. What made it frustrating tonight was not finishing the game off through six innings."

He had three two-strike hits in the sixth inning to blame for that, as he struggled to finish off hitters. But he also had Ethier's home run in the fifth in a no-win situation.

Juan Uribe's one-out single provided the runner, and three straight pitches off the outside corner provided the count. Ethier was 5-for-12 lifetime off Scherzer heading into the game, while Matt Kemp was 0-for-13. Kemp, however, has 20 home runs.

Scherzer challenged Ethier with a fastball. Either sent it halfway up the right-field bleachers for his seventh home run on the year and 4-1 lead.

"The key wasn't the 3-0 home run," Leyland said. "The key was getting 3-0."

Despite that, the Tigers put the potential tying run on base in the next inning. And with Miguel Cabrera out of the starting lineup for the first time all year, Leyland gave him the chance to slug them back into the game.

Cabrera was 0-for-12 off Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley, which gave Leyland a good reason to give his slugger a rest. Once Dodgers manager Don Mattingly pulled Billingsley with the bases loaded and one out, having yielded a walk to Avila on top of singles to Brennan Boesch and Martinez, Leyland had a very good reason to bring in his All-Star slugger.

"That's one thing I learned in the National League: When you get your chance, you've got to take it," Leyland said.

Cabrera knew he was resting, but he said before the game he knew he had to be ready for a pinch-hit opportunity. With former American League Central foe Mike MacDougal on the mound, he was eager.

McDougal, however, had a 97 mph sinker. He spotted the first for a called strike, then got Cabrera to swing at the second.

"He got it right on the barrel," Leyland said. "He just couldn't get it on the air."

Instead, he got it right to shortstop Dee Gordon, who started the inning-ending double play.

"It was sinking," Cabrera said. "It was a great pitch."

It was one of three times Detroit stranded runners on first and second with nobody out, but that one hurt the most.

"Billingsley tonight was really good," Mattingly said. "He used his breaking ball. He changed speeds and stayed calm out there."

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.

Jackson's dazzling grab seals win for Tigers
Center fielder saves day in ninth after Detroit belts four homers

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/22/2011 9:51 PM ET

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LOS ANGELES -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland talks about the final outs of a game as entirely different to try to earn. He was talking about the job of a reliever, not a center fielder.

But on a warm Wednesday afternoon with fly balls soaring at Dodger Stadium, Austin Jackson was the Tigers' closer. It just won't show up on the stats sheet of Wednesday's 7-5 Tigers win.

"That last at-bat, when the ball left the bat I thought for sure it was at least a base hit," said the Dodgers' Matt Kemp, who was headed home with the would-be tying run when Jackson ran down Dioner Navarro's drive in right-center field. "We fought back, but Jackson made a heck of a play."

Kemp, a Gold Glove center fielder, saw Jackson rob him of an extra-base hit with a leaping catch in front of the fence Monday night. That leap might have been more of a highlight. But that was in the first inning of the series' first game.

Jackson has had better catches. His mad dash to left-center field for an over-the-shoulder catch in Armando Galarraga's perfect game bid last year comes to mind. But he arguably hasn't had a game-saver like this.

"He made a heck of a play," Leyland said, "and he made it look pretty easy, really."

Jackson had the game off to rest his legs, effectively giving him a two-day rest before the Tigers' upcoming stretch of 17 games in 17 days leading into the All-Star break next month. But like a closer, Jackson got the call in the ninth, coming in from the dugout to take his usual spot in center field while Jose Valverde took the mound. They were the last of Leyland's eight moves as the longtime National League manager summoned his old Senior Circuit self with a slew of double-switches and situational moves to try to avoid a series sweep and a 1-5 Interleague road trip.

That was fine for Jackson, who said he'd rather enter a game on defense than try to step off the bench and pinch-hit late in a game like that.

"It's definitely a lot easier," Jackson said.

He had seen balls fly out all afternoon, from Casper Wells' first career leadoff home run batting in Jackson's place to two-run homers from Magglio Ordonez in the second inning and Miguel Cabrera in the third to build Detroit's lead against Dodgers starter Ted Lilly (5-7). Another home run in the eighth from Don Kelly provided what turned out to be a critical insurance run.

On a day when the Tigers and Dodgers wore throwback jerseys from 1944, the Tigers had a glimpse of a younger form from Ordonez, who has his own big defensive play when James Loney tried to score on Jamey Carroll's fourth-inning fly ball to right. Ordonez fired an accurate throw on one hop to catcher Victor Martinez, who used his left foot to block Loney from sliding into home plate. The out ended a threat in which the Dodgers brought the potential tying run to the plate.

Once Jackson entered, he watched from another angle while two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out, bringing Los Angeles within a base hit of a tie game and extra bases of a walk-off victory.

He saw Valverde strike out a longtime Tiger killer, former Cleveland Indian Casey Blake, for the second out, then put Navarro in a two-strike count. Then he saw the ball jump off Navarro's bat and soar toward the gap in right-center field.

He wasn't thinking about the chances of getting there at that point. He was just trying to get going in that direction as quickly as possible.

"In those situations, you just see a ball hit in the gap," Jackson said, "and you just do your best to get the best jump and react."

Leyland has learned to expect Jackson to run down a lot of fly balls. There are few plays that surprise him anymore. This was one.

"I thought when [Navarro] hit it, it was going to be in the gap for sure, over his head," Leyland said.

So, of course, did Kemp.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly knew Jackson from his days in the Yankees organization, when Mattingly was a coach under Joe Torre. He knew what kind of defense he can play. Even he didn't sound completely sure.

"Austin can fly," Mattingly said. "He can play some center field. It looked like he just kind of outran it at the end. That ball just kind of ran out of steam at the end, and he just kept going."

Jackson has made a habit of those.

"I got a pretty good jump on it, a good read on it," Jackson said. "I kept my eye on it the whole time and I felt the warning track, so I knew how much room I had and I was able to make a play on it."

The catch made a winner out of Al Alburquerque (4-1), whose 2 1/3 scoreless innings bridged the gap between Rick Porcello's fifth-inning jam and setup man Joaquin Benoit. It also allowed Valverde to keep his perfect closing mark intact, now 17-for-17 in save opportunities.

But in effect, Jackson was the closer. He didn't get to face his childhood friend Javy Guerra, who has been closing games for the Dodgers, but he might have robbed him of a victory.

"It's one of those things where you see a ball hit and you do your best to get there, no matter what the situation is," Jackson said. "And I think, since the situation was what it was today, it was probably a better catch than what it really was."

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.

Coke struggles in loss to Arizona

By Chris Vannini / MLB.com | 6/25/2011 12:43 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Phil Coke takes losses hard like he's still a late-inning reliever. In that sense, he has not made it an easy slide into the Tigers rotation.

It's tough enough that the no-decisions now hit him hard. When they involve a four-run lead blown into a 7-6 loss to the D-backs Friday night, they hit him particularly tough.

"I'm ashamed of myself for letting that get away the way I did," Coke said.

Wily Mo Pena's go-ahead homer traveled an estimated 454 feet to left field off a David Purcey offspeed pitch, but it might as well have hit Coke in the gut as he watched from the clubhouse. He was long gone from the game, pulled with two outs in the fifth and the Tigers clutching for dear life onto what was a three-run lead going into the inning.

His emotions aren't tough to read when he's on the mound, and given his interviews, they're pretty evident off of it. While fireworks went off on the field in the minutes after Friday's game, Coke's frustration sparked.

"Of course I'm frustrated, man," he said. "I got out there, they give me a lead and I let it slip away. Of course I'm frustrated. I feel terrible. The best way I can describe it right now."

He has not had many leads, which partly explains the emotions. His 11-start winless streak since April 14 includes two outings of more than six scoreless innings, a 3 1/3-inning start shortened by a foot injury in a Tigers victory, and another Tigers win after a blown lead from the bullpen.

He came into Friday's outing with an average of 2.63 runs of support per nine innings, which would rank third-lowest among American League starters if he had enough innings to qualify. He was second to Justin Verlander in earned-run average, opponents' batting average and WHIP ratio on the team, yet last in the rotation in wins.

Friday was just the fourth time all season the Tigers had scored six runs for him, and they scored quickly. He was an out away from qualifying for the victory when three singles and a walk set up his demise.

Pena's eighth-inning homer was actually Arizona's lone extra-base hit of the night, and it was an exclamation point on the comeback. It marked the longest home run ever hit by an opposing player at Comerica Park, topping Chipper Jones' 453-foot drive off the brick wall beyond left-center field in 2004, and the longest by a right-handed hitter in the park's 12-year history.

"I didn't move too much," left fielder Casper Wells said. "I've seen him hit balls like that. ... He's a big guy. You can't leave a ball up to a guy like that. He's a football player out there."

Said Pena: "I don't know how far that one went, but I hit the ball real good. As soon as I hit the ball, I knew it was out."

The only deeper drives at Comerica Park were Carlos Pena's 461-foot launch over the brick wall in right-center near the end of the 2005 season, and Eric Munson's 457-foot walkoff shot off the center-field camera well in 2004. Munson's shot beat the D-backs, so maybe it was fitting that Pena finally enacted some revenge.

To Coke, though, it should've never gotten to that point, not after Jhonny Peralta's two-run double in the opening inning and Wells' two-run homer in the fourth gave him room to pitch.

"I'm very proud of the way we go out there and go about our business," Coke said. "We go out there and we do a good job and I blew a golden opportunity for our team."

Coke retired nine of his first 10 batters before three straight baserunners led off the fourth inning. All of them scored, but Coke managed to escape a jam to leave it at that.

Back to the mound with a 6-3 lead in the fifth, Coke retired Ryan Roberts and Kelly Johnson before Justin Upton got him for his third single in as many at-bats. After he stole second, Coke walked Chris Young.

"Phil just didn't pitch good tonight," manager Jim Leyland said. "He left a lot of balls up."

His demise, though, might well have been on the ground ball he couldn't covert. Miguel Cabrera's dive stopped Stephen Drew's grounder, but Coke seemed to fumble with his footwork as he tried to cover the bag.

"That was huge," Leyland said. "That was a bang-bang play. ... He didn't get over there. You have to get over there. Cabrera made a good play. As it turned out, the way the play developed, the way Coke took the throw was probably a little bit of the difference. He reached back a little bit."

That loaded the bases for Xavier Nady, whose two-run single knocked Coke out of the game. Ryan Perry, just recalled from Triple-A Toledo, put Pena in an 0-2 count before he tried to bury a slider in the dirt. The ball skipped off Alex Avila's forearm and rolled to the Tigers dugout, scoring Drew with the tying run.

"That was my plan, 0-2, but maybe just a little too much [in the dirt]," said Perry, who went on for 2 1/3 solid innings.

The Tigers committed to Coke as a starter before the season started, and they've kept to it. And while Leyland said before the game that he can now foresee long reliever Charlie Furbush as a potential starter someday, he wasn't talking about the near future.

But Leyland and others have also said Coke has to corral his emotions to make it work. Friday didn't help him on that cause.

"I think it absolutely played against me tonight for sure," Coke said. "I'm a very emotional guy on the field. It bothers me that I let it get to me the way that I did because I cost us that."

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

Hang 10: Dominant Verlander drives Detroit
Ace fans career-high 14 D-backs, pulls Tigers into first-place tie

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/26/2011 12:45 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The pitch came from Justin Verlander. Justin Upton swung and missed, as so many have recently. Verlander struck out the side after allowing the first two batters to reach second and third in the eighth inning.

The crowd of 43,163 -- the first sellout since the home opener at Comerica Park -- roared both for what Verlander did and what he has done.

The Tigers' ace had a career-high 14 strikeouts in Saturday's 6-0 win over the D-backs, continuing an unbelievable run that is complicating the question of who is the best in the game.

Verlander is 6-0 with a 0.72 ERA in six starts since May 29, giving up 26 hits, five walks and striking out 51 in 49 2/3 innings over that span. Since his no-hitter on May 7, Verlander is 8-0 with a 1.56 ERA.

He has hurled a quality start in 16 of his 17 outings and passed Roy Halladay for the Major League lead in strikeouts. The Tigers' ace has not lost since April 27, winning eight consecutive decisions over that span -- including his past six starts.

Verlander has had dominant streaks before, but never like this.

"I feel like I'm throwing the ball really well," Verlander said. "I feel like my fastball control has been outstanding, for the most part, during this stretch. Most of the good games I have are built off of that, being able to locate that, and mixing the offspeed off of that.

"I feel like I was able to do that tonight pretty well, keep guys off-balance and start to get them guessing."

Verlander gave up four hits over eight scoreless innings against the D-backs.

"He was everything we heard he was, and I saw him when he came up for his first game and we knew he had electric stuff," said Arizona manager Kirk Gibson. "We watched him on TV, so you have to tip your hat to him."

Verlander had his top three pitches working well for him -- the fastball, curveball and changeup. He finished with 119 pitches, 84 for strikes. He spotted the curveball for a strike 19 of 25 times (76 percent), which was better compared to the fastball (33-for-50, 66 percent). He also threw nine sliders, eight of them for strikes, according to MLB.com Gameday data.

"You just don't see stuff like that," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "I think one of their guys remarked to [third-base coach Gene Lamont], if you get a pitch from him to hit, you'd better hit it."

The career-high eighth consecutive win for Verlander not only made him the second 10-win pitcher in baseball this season, it moved the Tigers back into a first-place tie in the American League Central with the Indians -- who lost to the Giants, 1-0.

"Obviously, I was kind of the poster boy for this game, but you look around and there's many guys, and that's the way we've been winning," Verlander said. "It's easy for those guys to get overshadowed, everybody kind of battled tonight, it was a team effort. Everybody went out there and did a fantastic job, top to bottom in the lineup."

Verlander's counterpart, catcher Alex Avila, backed up the pitcher with an offensive outpouring.

One day after Verlander started a Twitter campaign to get Avila into the All-Star Game, the catcher helped his pitcher with a 3-for-4, four-RBI game, which included a three-run home run in the fourth inning that put the Tigers up, 5-0.

Despite the early lead, Verlander didn't feel in rhythm until the fifth, when he worked out of a 2-0 count to strike out Wily Mo Pena.

"I went 2-0, and was able to really spot up two fastballs down and away to get myself back in the count, and that was kind of the turning point for me," Verlander said. "I know that was a little bit deep in the game, but that's really when I felt like I could establish a rhythm and locate pretty well."

From then on, Verlander allowed just three baserunners -- two of which came in the eighth, when a leadoff walk and double put runners on second and third with no outs.

But Verlander struck out Ryan Roberts, Kelly Johnson and Upton to end the threat and his night. The final at-bat included a 100-mph fastball, as Verlander didn't expect to be coming out for the ninth.

"Once second and third happened with nobody out, I kind of said, 'Well, no point in saving anything,'" Verlander said. "Let's go after these guys and see if we can strike some guys out."

Verlander became the third Tigers pitcher since 1972 to strike out 14 batters in a game, joining teammate Max Scherzer -- who did it on May 30 of last year -- and former teammate Jeremy Bonderman -- who did it in 2004. The franchise record for strikeouts in a game is 16, set by Mickey Lolich, who did so twice in 1969.

During the eighth inning, Verlander let himself soak in the moment. The fans roared, not only hoping Verlander would get out of the jam, but do it with style. A swing and a miss by Upton and a small fist pump gave the fans what they wanted.

"I kind of took a minute and took it all in after I struck out the second guy," Verlander said. "I just stepped off the mound because it's easy to let your adrenaline get to you in that situation. Just take a step back and kind of soak it up a little bit, because it's not often you hear a roar like that.

"I've heard it a few times in this stadium -- I've been through some pretty special moments here -- but that was one of the most vocal performances that these fans have put on."

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' bats 'Spark' late in finale

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/26/2011 7:05 PM ET

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DETROIT -- On the day the Tigers celebrated the life and career of Sparky Anderson before a sellout crowd, Detroit and Arizona combined for 11 runs. Sparky's old team scored seven of them with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, against two of the legendary manager's favorite players, Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell.

"It was just one of those things today," said D-backs starter Joe Saunders, whose seven innings of one-run ball went for naught in the 8-3 Tigers win. "I think Sparky had a little to do with it."

It's hard to make that case when it was Gibson who had to make the trips to the mound to change relievers in the eighth inning, and Trammell who had to watch the rally unfold from the visiting dugout, arms crossed at the bottom of the steps.

Still, the combination of timely hitting and quality at-bats was something that the Tigers will gladly take, and something Anderson probably would have enjoyed watching from the dugout in his day.

"Quite a tribute to Sparky, deservedly so," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said before the game. "Hopefully we put the frosting on the cake with a nice win in front of a wonderful crowd."

The eighth-inning rally began with Don Kelly delivering a pinch-hit, one-out single with the Tigers down, 2-1. By the time it ended, Kelly was on base for a second time after his ground ball led to Ryan Roberts' error and the Tigers' final run.

In between were more baserunners in one inning than Saunders had allowed the Tigers over the first seven frames. Back-to-back two-out walks continued the rally before five straight hits.

"Miguel [Cabrera] got a big two-out hit," Leyland said. "That's golden. That's what he's good at. And the other guys just kind of picked up on it and we added some insurance. We had a good win after it looked like it could be a potentially tough day."

The win ensured that the Tigers will enter the week with at least a share of the American League Central lead. The Indians, who were in a virtual tie with Detroit atop the division, were scheduled to play the Giants on Sunday night.

For a lineup that has had its share of success against left-handers, the Tigers had some of the same struggles against Saunders that they did against harder-throwing Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw last Monday. Jhonny Peralta's second-inning solo homer accounted for the lone run off him, and Peralta's fourth-inning single accounted for the last hit.

Saunders retired the last 10 batters he faced, and Aaron Heilman retired his first before walking Kelly on five pitches. Heilman (4-1) struck out Austin Jackson before missing on a full-count sinker to Casper Wells for another walk.

That brought up Magglio Ordonez, which brought in hard-throwing setup man David Hernandez.

"He was going to try to overpower him, obviously, and I thought it was a great move by Gibby to bring him in," Leyland said. "He wanted to hardball him. He just didn't throw strikes."

He didn't throw any strikes, sailing three straight fastballs at shoulder level or higher following a first-pitch curve. It loaded the bases for Cabrera.

You can guess the rest -- not just with Cabrera, but Victor Martinez and Peralta after him. It put the Tigers at 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position on the day.

"Everybody did a great job, making him throw strikes and swinging at good pitches," Cabrera said. "Everybody isn't trying to hit a home run or trying to be a hero, just trying to make contact with the ball and put the ball in play."

And everybody did until Brian Shaw finally struck out Jackson for the third out.

"Wherever we hit them, they fell in the gap or fell in the hole," Leyland said.

The victory didn't get a win for Tigers starter Brad Penny, who took a 1-0 lead into the seventh before four singles put Arizona ahead. Instead, it made a winner again out of Al Alburquerque (5-1), who stranded the bases loaded in the seventh and left two more runners on in the eighth for his second victory in as many outings.

"Thank God they took Saunders out," Penny said. "He threw a great game. He was making pitches with everything, pitching in and out, up and down, locating his offspeed stuff. So it was nice [to 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.

Game of inches: Peralta's triple lifts Tigers
Sinking liner eludes Bautista's glove as Detroit takes third straight

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/27/2011 11:37 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Jim Leyland doesn't get ejected to fire up his club. If he needs that to motivate his team, he likes to say, he should go home.

Instead, he went to his office once he earned his dismissal from first-base umpire Ed Rapuano. The sight of Leyland's arms waving, his head bobbing as he shouted, made a memory for the 25,181 in attendance and the players in the dugout.

The sight of Jhonny Peralta's sinking line drive bouncing past Jose Bautista in right field proved bigger, providing the Tigers with a go-ahead rally in the eighth inning for the second straight game in a 4-2 win over the Blue Jays.

It wasn't a seven-run surge, like Detroit enjoyed while dispatching Arizona on Sunday, but it was enough to help the Tigers stay atop the American League Central. It also moved Detroit back to their high point of seven games over .500 and five games up on the idle White Sox.

"It was a good win for us," said manager Jim Leyland. "It's tough. We're playing a lot of games right up until the [All-Star break]. I'm proud of the guys. They battled."

Much of that battling took place with Leyland back in the clubhouse, something he wasn't proud of and wasn't discussing afterwards. When a reversed call turned what was briefly an Andy Dirks bunt single into an out, Leyland erupted in an animated tirade on Rapuano for turning to home-plate umpire Alfonso Marquez for a second opinion. Detroit's skipper clearly knew Dirks was out, but the problem was the reversal when Rapuano's view wasn't blocked.

Suddenly, there was the sight of Leyland along the first-base line, giving his best impression of Rapuano's indecision -- his tepid, delayed safe call, then out. Rapuano's gesture to eject him was a lot quicker.

It was a rare argument and first ejection of the season for Leyland. His players seemed to appreciate it.

"We all had a nice little chuckle in the dugout," said Tigers starter Max Scherzer. "Good old Skip, giving his best to the umpires."

Even with the reversed call, the Tigers had put the go-ahead run into scoring position in the seventh inning, only to watch former Tigers draft pick Jason Frasor retire Miguel Cabrera to strand two and keep the game tied.

Once Magglio Ordonez's one-out single the next inning, his second hit of the night, put the go-ahead run back on base, the Tigers took advantage.

Austin Jackson was part of the big eighth inning Sunday night, but not a part of the rally. He made two of the three outs that inning, striking out both times he came up, and his three-strikeout night preceded Leyland's decision to give him a night off for the second time in six days.

Once Ordonez reached base against Jays lefty Marc Rzepczynski (2-2), acting manager and hitting coach Lloyd McClendon didn't hesitate to put Jackson in the game -- and he didn't want Jackson hesitating once he reached first base to pinch-run.

"It's fun for me and exciting for me to try to get in there and face that challenge to get into scoring position," Jackson said.

After a first-pitch foul ball, Jackson took off on the next offering from right-hander Shawn Camp, swiping his 13th base of the year. Two pitches later, he had to hesitate and watch as Bautista closed in on Peralta's sinking liner.

"In that situation, as a baserunner, I think the best thing you can do is just read his reaction," Jackson said. "He kind of had to dive a little bit, so you try to stay close enough to where maybe you can get back and tag, but if it does drop in that situation, be off and able to score."

All the while, Bautista's reaction was one of an outfielder tracking the ball and expecting to make the catch. Bautista said later, however, he was searching for the ball against the glare of the lights.

"Right off the bat, I knew I had a shot standing up," Bautista said. "And halfway through the flight of the line drive, the ball got into the lights and I took about six or seven steps hoping it would come out -- that's when I decided to slide for it, because I lost it for the last six or seven steps."

Said Jackson: "I thought he had a good chance to catch it, and he did [have a shot]. It just went under his glove."

Jackson scored easily as the ball kept rolling in right field. Peralta took off and reached third base standing up, having driven in his 46th run of the year. He's tied for second on the team with Victor Martinez, even though he's been batting seventh in the order more often than not.

Add together this half-season in 2011 with his two months in Detroit after his trade from Cleveland last year, and Peralta has 20 home runs and 83 RBIs in 126 games. Whether it earns him an All-Star nod next weekend remains to be seen, but it has stretched out the run-production portion of Detroit's lineup.

"Big hit after big hit," Leyland said, "and that's why we got him last year."

The rally made a winner out of Joaquin Benoit (2-3), who registered a scoreless eighth inning. Max Scherzer wasn't able to join Justin Verlander among 10-game winners, but his seven innings of two-run ball kept the Tigers in the game, and he equaled his season high with nine strikeouts.

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 can't contain Mets in Tigers' loss
Starter's rough patch grows against National League visitor

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 6/29/2011 1:00 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Rick Porcello doesn't feel lost right now, not the way he did last year. That's good, because there's a good chance they need him here if they're going to go places this season. But they need him better than his results Tuesday.

As big as Tuesday's 14-3 loss to the Mets loomed on the scoreboard, like a result that somehow crossed the street from Ford Field next door, the pitcher who gave up half of those runs is a much bigger concern. If the Tigers are going to contend, it's a huge concern.

It's not the same concern as last year, and they aren't quite the same numbers. But they're not nearly the numbers the Tigers need from him, either.

"As stuff goes, I feel like it was as good tonight as it's been all year," Porcello said. "I feel like it's just a matter of pitch-making, leaving balls up, making some mistakes to some guys."

As good as Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have been, manager Jim Leyland pointed out last week, the Tigers need results from their other three starters. Get good outings from one of those other three, and there's a chance to win three out of five, play .600 ball, if not better.

Porcello is the Tigers' best chance at that formidable third guy. After two tough starts to open the season, Porcello was that guy for a six-week stretch. But after three straight ugly losses to National League teams, his midseason rough patch is looming large.

Porcello learned from last year. He's in study mode now. After seven runs on 11 hits over 3 2/3 innings Tuesday, he spent the rest of the game watching video, trying to figure out how the Mets could attack him so aggressively.

"A year ago, I felt lost. That was then," Porcello said later. "Right now, it's a bump in the road, there's no doubt about that. But I mean, I don't have time to sit here and be worried about it. I have to figure it out and fix it.

"We're trying to win a division. I can't go out there and have performances like that, especially [three] games in a row."

Add Tuesday's damage to his defeat at Dodger Stadium last week and poor showing to the Rockies before that, and Porcello has given up 18 earned runs on 28 hits over 11 1/3 innings. His ERA, in turn, has risen from 3.58 on June 7 to 5.06 after Tuesday's start.

"Actually, his start in L.A. really wasn't that bad," Leyland said. "He kind of got blooped to death in L.A. But the start in Colorado and this one certainly were not good."

The final half-run of that ERA jump came Tuesday, and all of it came with two outs. Daniel Murphy and Angel Pagan hit back-to-back RBI doubles with two outs in the first. Porcello had three straight batters in two-strike, two-out situations before Miguel Cabrera finally snagged a hard-hit liner from Willie Harris to strand runners on in the second inning.

Porcello's demise in the fourth came after retiring the first two batters of the inning. He left a fastball up to ninth hitter Josh Thole for the catcher's first home run of the year. He threw back-to-back offspeed pitches to Jose Reyes, who lined the second into the right-field corner for a triple.

His first-pitch sinker to Willie Harris ended up hitting the right-field fence. Had Harris gotten an extra base out of it, it would've set up Porcello to give up the cycle in a four-batter, five-pitch span, because Carlos Beltran lined his next pitch to center for another single.

After challenging Daniel Murphy on a 2-0 pitch and giving up an RBI single, Leyland brought the hook.

"Tonight, he threw some bad pitches that they hit," Leyland said, "and he threw some decent pitches that they hit. It just wasn't his night. He got some balls up, and he threw some decent pitches that they hit. They were real aggressive, kind of charging him."

Porcello has never been a big strikeout pitcher, and doesn't get many swings and misses even when he gets strikeouts. But even by his standards, his total of two swing-and-miss strikes Tuesday was low. He had three swings and misses out of 81 pitches at Dodger Stadium, and two swinging strikes out of 55 pitches at Colorado. He had nine against Seattle before that.

No matter which pitch Porcello threw Tuesday -- 24 sinkers, 18 four-seam fastballs, 15 changeups and 12 sliders out of 71 pitches, according to brooksbaseball.net and MLB.com Gameday -- they seemed to track it well. But if the secondary pitches aren't executed well, they won't keep opponents from sitting on sinkers.

"I definitely felt like today and in previous bad outings, I think guys have been all over my fastball, especially left-handed hitters," Porcello said. "That's been kind of an ongoing thing for me that I've got to make sure I shut down lefties in the lineup. Almost all the lineups I'm going to face are stacked with left-handed hitters. That's just an ongoing challenge."

The Mets' left-handed hitters went 5-for-9 against Porcello. Opponents are now batting .326 from the left side off him.

"For Rick, his safety zone is the sinker down and away to lefties," pitching coach Rick Knapp said. "If you execute one out of four, it's difficult. If you execute two out of four, it's different. That's what we're working for, to try to get his sinker. That, in a nutshell, is it."

If he's tipping pitches, the Tigers either don't know or aren't telling. It would certainly have to be on their minds as they look at the video. But opponents aren't missing.

Porcello has one more NL opponent left when the Giants face him Sunday. He'll no doubt be studying.

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.

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