AP Photo/Duane Burleson
See how nice and fun this whole baseball thing can be when you score some runs, Detroit Tigers? After forcing Justin Verlander to choke down another loss by only scoring two runs for him last night, the Tigers brought out the big lumber this afternoon and put up the kind of numbers that should give them a victory most days.
Three Detroit batters hit home runs today, each of which were important toward the final outcome. Carlos Guillen tied the game in the fourth inning with a two-run homer, and Marcus Thames drew the score even once again in the eighth with a solo shot. And later in that eighth inning, Edgar Renteria cleared the bases that Rafael Betancourt loaded up, and put the game away with a grand slam. That gave the Tigers a lead that the bullpen couldn't cough up, though Zach Miner did his relief mate a favor by giving up a run and putting two more runners on base, thus creating a save situation for Todd Jones.
Eight runs and 11 hits were the happy totals today. So what are the chances the Tigers end up getting shut out on two or three hits tomorrow? If that doesn't happen, and Detroit wins on a Sunday for only the second time this season, maybe this really was the kind of turnaround that the FOX broadcast crew mentioned three or four times during the post-game show.