Tigers Pound Phillies in Series Opener
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On Friday, the Phillies and starter Jon Lieber got a taste of what it’s like to go up against one of baseball’s most potent offenses and it wasn’t pretty.
The Detroit Tigers pounded losing pitcher Lieber for 7 runs, 6 earned on 10 hits over his 5 innings of work, then bludgeoned reliever Francisco Rosario for 4 more in the 6th inning to build an 11-3 lead enroute to a 12-8 victory to open the 3 game series.
The Phils got a season-high 5 homers in the game, but an 8th inning rally fell short as did 2 two out walks in the 9th which netted nothing as they fell back to 3rd place, 3 games behind the NL East division-leading Mets, who shut out Roger Clemens and the Yankees, and 1/2 game behind the 2nd place Atlanta Braves who nipped the Cleveland Indians.
The Phillies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as shortstop Jimmy Rollins opened the game with a homer to rightfield, and 1st baseman Ryan Howard added a 2 out solo shot to right. Detroit tied the game with 2 in the 2nd and then jumped on Lieber for 5 runs in the 5th inning.
Winning and undefeated Tigers’ starter Jeremy Bonderman started the 5th inning outburst with with his first career hit in 21 at-bats, beating out a bouncer to third base which bounced off of Jon Lieber.
AP sports writer Rob Maaddi describes what happened afterwards in the inning for Yahoo sports;
Curtis Granderson followed with a single to right and Placido Polanco singled off Lieber’s pitching hand to load the bases.
Gary Sheffield’s sacrifice fly to right put the Tigers up 3-2. Magglio Ordonez doubled in a run and [Ivan] Rodriguez hit a three-run shot to center field with two outs to make it 7-2.
Bonderman’s hit and his adventure around the bases drew some laughter in the dugout.
“It was a good-hustle hit,” [Sean] Casey said. “He was definitely a station-to-station runner.”
Leyland was thankful Bonderman didn’t get hurt on the base paths. He has eight more games without a designated hitter in NL parks.
“I’m glad his hamstring was still in place,” he said.
Bonderman was exhausted after his romp.
“I’m not used to running like that. It takes a lot out of you,” he said. “That’s as fast as I can run, which isn’t very fast.”
Rollins added his 2nd homer of the game, a 1 out solo shot again to rightfield in the 5th to cut the Tigers’ lead to 7-3. With 13 homers, AP’s Rob Maaddi projects that Rollins is on pace to hit 31. Last season, Rollins hit a career-high 25 dingers.
Lieber exited the game after 5 innings and was replaced for the 6th inning by Rosario who coughed up 4 more runs as Rodriguez hit a two-run single and Casey added a two-run double.
3rd baseman Greg Dobbs got a run back for the Phils with yet another solo homer, again to rightfield. After 6, the Tigers were up 11-4.
In the 7th inning, Gary Sheffield capped the Tigers’ scoring with an RBI on a fielders choice grounder, the run scoring off of reliever Jose Mesa.
Rightfielder Shane Victorino cut the margin to 12-6 with a 2 run homer in the Phillies’ 7th inning. Bonderman pitched into the 7th inning having given up 5 runs over 6 innings, but after catcher Carlos Ruiz opened with a single, he was relieved by Tim Byrdak who gave up Victorino’s homer.
Byrdak was also charged with the Phillies’ final 2 runs in the 8th as Ruiz doubled scoring Dobbs and Rollins tripled scoring Ruiz.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Friday’s games, click here.
On Saturday, two lefties face each other. Veteran Jamie Moyer faces young Andrew Miller. On Sunday, Adam Eaton goes against Justin Verlander who is fresh from his complete game No-Hit 4-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers last Tuesday.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Saturday’s games, click here.
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