Another great starting pitching performance turned in by Mike Maroth. He has now gone 17.1 innings without allowing a run. The last run he allowed was in the first inning of his first outing of the season. Maroth held Seattle off the board even without complete command of his pitches. He struggled at times with his control, but pitched out of trouble on every occasion. This game was a pitching battle between Maroth and Washburn who also pitched well in the loss.After six scoreless innings, Maroth gave way to Zumaya who blazed his fastball past the Mariners’ hitters for two shut out innings with four strikeouts. Todd Jones saw his first action of the year since coming off the DL to record his first save. Jones struggled in his first outing allowing a run and showing why Ernie Harwell called him the Rollercoaster. The tying run was 90 feet away with Ichiro at the plate, but Jones got him to ground out to Polanco at second.
The Tiger offense struggled throughout the game. They scored the go-ahead run in the sixth as Brandon Inge doubled, advanced to third on a ground out by Vance Wilson and scored on a sac fly by Polanco. Detroit got what turned out to be a huge insurance run in the top of the 9th when Pudge homered to center. The offense took advantage of the limited scoring opportunities they had, but the story of this game for the Tigers was again the pitching.
*** OEs 3 Stars of the Game ***
#3 Todd Jones – Save (1), 1 IP, 2 Hs, 1 R, 1 ER and 1 BB
#2 Joel Zumaya – Hold (4), 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER and 4 Ks
#1 Mike Maroth – Win (3), 6 IP, 4 Hs, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BBs, 3 Ks, 0.49 ERA
