Kenny Rogers pitched well for Detroit once again. In the first inning Figgins walked and moved around to third on two ground outs. Rogers got Vlad to fly out to center to end the inning. The Angels got on the board first in the bottom of the second. Tim Salmon hit his sixth career home run off Rogers to left field leading off the inning. A double play got Rogers out of trouble in the third after he walked Figgins for the second time. Again in the fourth Rogers was masterful after getting into trouble. Garrett Anderson led off with a double, but did not get any further. Rogers got Vlad, Salmon and Erstad easily on two weak ground outs and a strike out. The fifth was an easy 1-2-3 affair with Rogers having a pitch count of 73. Tim Salmon again stung Rogers with a two out RBI single in the sixth driving in Anderson who doubled. Erstad grounded out to second to avoid any further damage. The 7th was another easy 1-2-3 inning for Rogers who put in another solid outing. He just didn’t get any help from the offense.
Jordan Tata pitched the 8th. Figgins doubled to right and made it all the way to third on an error by Ordonez. Cabrera followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the Angels cushion further. The error could have been costly as Tata got the next two batters on a grounder to second and a strike out. Without the error the lead could have only been two heading to the ninth. But with the way the Angels’ pitched and the Tigers’ swung the bats it didn’t matter.
Ervin Santana began tough against the Tigers’ batters. After giving up a lead off walk to Granderson, who was thrown out on a pitch out attempting to steal second, Santana went on the strike out six of the next eight batters. Only Shelton broke the drought with a single to center and Thames actually hit a ground out. The Tigers got a threat going with two outs in the third. Granderson walked for the second time of the game and went to third on a single by Polanco. Pudge Rodriguez got nailed by a pitch to load the bases. However, Maggs flew out to Vlad in right to come up empty.
Detroit’s offense started a threat again in the top of the fourth as Guillen hit a perfectly placed double between Figgins and Anderson in shallow left. Chris Shelton did his job getting the runner to third with a sac fly to deep right. Unfortunately Craig Monroe did not do his part to drive in the run striking out for the second time in the game. Thames was not able to pick him up and another scoring chance came up empty.
The Tigers were only able to get a two out single by Polanco in the fifth. The good thing is they forced Santana to throw a lot of pitches as he had 97 after five. Detroit did not take advantage of Santana’s pitch count in the sixth as they only managed a lead-off single by Ordonez. Shelton and Monroe both struck out after Guillen flied out to left. Monroe’s third K of the game was the 10th for Ervin Santana in 6 innings.
Then the pen took over. Brendan Donnelly relieved Santana to start the seventh and pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Scot Shields came in to set-up the game for K-Rod. Shields got two quick outs before Maggs doubled to right. Carlos Guillen made a bid for a home run to left but came up just short of tying the game. K-Rod K’ed the ninth for his eighth save of the year. He struck out Shelton, Monroe, who struck out four times in the game and Alexis Gomez.
The Tigers’ offense must have missed the flight from Seattle to Anaheim. Detroit struck out 14 of their 27 outs. Once again they got very good pitching, but the lack of offensive production finally came back to bite them. The Tigers were shut out on five hits and did not take advantage of their scoring opportunities.
*** OEs 3 Stars of the Game ***
#3 Magglio Ordonez – 2-4 with a double
#2 Jordan Tata – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 K, 2.79 ERA
#1 Kenny Rogers – Loss (2), 7 IP, 4 Hs, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 Ks, 3.21 ERA
On Tap – Game 21 (12-8) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (11-9) April 25th, 10:05 ET
Jeremy Bonderman (1-2, 5.55) v. Hector Carrasco (0-0, 4.38)
