Detroit Tigers Notes And Quotes
--LHP Phil Coke threw a lot of strikes -- and a lot of them got hit. Of the 79 pitches Coke threw, 58 were strikes, and 11 of those wound up being base hits. Coke has now lost three of his last four decisions, two of them thumpings by Seattle. He's clearly still adjusting to the transition from the bullpen to the rotation.
--CF Don Kelly pinch-hit for CF Austin Jackson in the eighth inning and flied out to left against Toronto RHP Jon Rauch, then came up in the ninth and lined a single to right that kept a three-run inning going. Kelly also replaced Jackson in center, just missing a shallow bloop single, a ball the speedier Jackson might have had. Two runs scored on the play, expanding Toronto's lead to 7-1. Kelly won't start the next two games, as Toronto is throwing left-handers, but he might play Monday.
--CF Austin Jackson added two more strikeouts to his league-leading total but also singled in his first at-bat as he continues to struggle to find the success he had in his rookie season. Jackson seems to be getting his front foot down in time but now looks as if he's swinging at too many pitches that are up or high out of the strike zone. He was removed for a pinch hitter in the eighth inning.
--RHP Brayan Villarreal allowed a solo home run to 1B Adam Lind during his five-out stint. "He looked a little bit like he was going to a fire," manager Jim Leyland said, adding Villarreal had not been used in a couple of days and might have been a little rusty. "He hung that slider to Lind."
--RF Magglio Ordonez yanked a double down the third base line, his only hit, but it again looks as if he's getting more of his lower body into his swing, and that's producing better at-bats. He lined out to right in the ninth, more evidence he is hitting the ball sharper than he was in April. "Maggs is close," manager Jim Leyland said. "I'm not saying he's turned the corner, but he's real close."
--3B Brandon Inge was hitting just .169 in his previous 23 games, and he struck out his first three times up in Toronto. But in the ninth inning, Inge had a two-run double one-hop to the center field wall. "This is the best I've ever felt with this kind of batting average," Inge said. "I feel I've been hitting the sweet spot a lot but getting nothing out of it. That has to change."
Manager Jim Leyland said, "Sometimes it doesn't look pretty -- and he's struggling right now, no question, but that's a pretty good ninth hitter."
--2B Scott Sizemore was rescued from recording his second consecutive hitless game by a three-run rally in the ninth inning. Sizemore roped an RBI single to right-center in his final at-bat. He also drew a walk. Defensively, Sizemore shows more range than he did last year, the result, he says, of flexibility training last winter and the fact his ankle is more than a year from being fractured.
BY THE NUMBERS
61 -- Runs allowed by Detroit pitchers from the seventh inning on, the highest total in the league.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"Everyone wants to hit third in baseball. I love hitting third, but I don't think too much of it. Where I'm put, I'm happy with it." -- OF Brennan Boesch, on his recent promotion to third in the batting order, just ahead of 1B Miguel Caberra.
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