Curtis Granderson started the Tigers offense on the right note Tuesday night leading off the game with a triple and coming home on Polanco’s RBI single. Then surprisingly Esteban Loaiza settled down not allowing Detroit to score any more runs through five.Verlander making his third start of the year surrendered a walk to Bradley before Nick Swisher homered to give the A’s a 2-1 lead. The Tigers defense fell apart in the bottom of the fourth giving an unearned run to Oakland on a failed double play. Detroit should have been out of the inning without any damage, but the second error of the game charged to Carlos Guillen proved costly. The defense has been suspect the last few games after a strong beginning to the season.
The offense picked up in the top of the 6th coming through with a pair of two out runs. Granderson again hit the ball off the wall for a double. He scored on a two out Pudge Rodriguez double to right. Magglio, who has been struggling, muscled a broken bat blooper into right to drive in the tying run.
The Tigers mental blunders continued in the 7th after Craig Monroe single with two outs. Brandon Inge hit a pop fly to center that dropped in front of Kotsay who threw out Monroe at third. With two outs Monroe should have been running on contact and with a high bloop single he should have easily reached third if he had been running.
Verlander, with his pitch count closing in on 100, gave up a long home run to center to Swisher his second of the game. He finished the 7th without further damage and ended up throwing 121 pitches. Verlander was sharp besides for two pitches to Swisher. He allowed 3 earned runs on only five hits, 3 walks and struck out 7. Bobby Seay pitched a perfect 8th with 2 Ks.
Duchscherer threw two scoreless innings in the 7th and 8th. Detroit got their first look at A’s closer Huston Street. Hopefully they won’t see him again anytime soon. He shut them down in the 9th for the save. Verlander’s solid start goes for not as the unearned run proves costly. Again the Tigers are in a situation where they need Kenny Rogers to stop a losing streak.
*** OEs 3 Stars of the Game ***
#3 Ivan Rodriguez – 1-3 with a run scored, 1 RBI and a walk, .319 AVG
#2 Justin Verlander – 7 IP, 4 runs, 3 ER, 5 Hs, 3 BBs, 7 Ks for a 5.40 ERA
#1 Curtis Granderson – 2-4 with 2 runs scored and a .283 AVG
