Detroit Tigers Notes And Quotes 6-14-11

--LHP Phil Coke came out firing bullets to Tampa Bay, his fastball hitting 95 mph for his first two pitches. He eased off his fastball a couple of innings into the game, but his breaking ball got better and he was able to mix the two effectively through 6 1/3 shutout innings. Coke wound up without a decision, Detroit scoring only one run for him and Tampa Bay tying it in the eighth. "I was just trying to make sure I was pounding the zone because in my last start I wasn't," Coke said.

--RF Magglio Ordonez helped Detroit in his return to the Tigers -- but with his arm, not his bat. Ordonez returned to action after being on the disabled list since May 11, and he went 0-for-2 and was hit by a pitch. Both outs were sharply lined, to second and third, and he looked much stronger at the plate than earlier this season. Where Ordonez helped out the most, though, was turning a seventh-inning flyout to medium right field with one out and the bases loaded into an inning-ending double play with a throw to the plate.

"I'm excited to be back here," Ordonez said. "I'm excited that the team is playing good, and hopefully I can do my job and help this team to win."

The ankle weakness that plagued him since the beginning of the season is gone.

"It's way different," he said. "It's stronger. I don't feel any pain. I don't feel any discomfort. I'm ready to play. I'm ready to play baseball."

He was taken out of the game for defensive reasons following the seventh.

--RHP Joaquin Benoit gave up the tying run in the eighth inning, the second consecutive appearance he has allowed a run after 10 scoreless outings in a row. Benoit yielded three straight one-out singles -- two of them on 1-2 counts -- and then a sacrifice fly to right that created a 1-1 tie. Benoit got himself into trouble by getting too many pitches up.

--2B Ryan Raburn returned to the lineup after sitting out two games and ended an 0-for-7 skid with a single to short his first time up. It was his only hit of the game, but he looked visibly relaxed at the plate and not at all like the befuddled batter he was in the three games prior to his two-game benching.

--C Alex Avila had two hits, and he also threw out two runners on the bases and made a key tagout at the plate. Avila's two hits did not factor into Detroit's 2-1, 10-inning win over Tampa Bay, but his defensive work did. Avila threw out a runner trying to steal third with one out in the fourth and got PR Sam Fuld when Fuld overslid second on a two-out steal attempt in the ninth. But his biggest contribution was catching a throw and making a sweep tag at the plate on LF Justin Ruggiano, who was trying to score on a medium-depth fly to right. RF Magglio Ordonez made the one-hop throw, and Ruggiano was called out on the play, though replays showed he might have been safe. "I mean, coming around, I thought I might have gotten him on the foot," Avila said, "but I wasn't sure. They called him out. He's out." Going to look at the replay? "Don't need to," he said.

--DH Victor Martinez drove in Detroit's first run and scored the winning run from first on a one-out triple to right-center by 2B Ramon Santiago in the 10th inning. The presence of Martinez is a key reason managers are reluctantly electing to pitch to 1B Miguel Cabrera. Martinez singled in a run after Cabrera was walked with a runner on second and two outs in the fifth. He is now 18-for-39 (.462) with 16 RBI following a walk to Cabrera this season. Manager Jim Leyland elected not to pinch-run for Martinez following his one-out single in the 10th, and Martinez came all the way around with the winning run on Santiago's hit.

--CF Austin Jackson struck out three times, but he also had a pair of singles for another multi-hit game. The resurgent Jackson now has six multi-hit games in his last 14. Neither hit got out of the infield, but that's one of the things that happen when Jackson is hot.

--RHP Jose Valverde pitched one inning, a scoreless ninth in a tie game, so manager Jim Leyland would be able to use him for at least two of Detroit's upcoming three games with Cleveland beginning Tuesday. Leyland will occasionally use Valverde two innings in a tie game if his pitch count is low enough. He threw 19 pitches in his inning, striking out two batters with his split-finger, which he is beginning to use more as the season progresses. He'll tell Leyland whether he can pitch Tuesday night after he arrives to Comerica Park.

--LHP David Purcey has been a valuable acquisition for Detroit. Purcey allowed a walk and a single with one out in the 10th inning but wriggled out of trouble via a liner to short that was turned into a double play. Still, Purcey's ability to pitch scoreless innings has given manager Jim Leyland some late-inning options, either in front of or, in this case, behind RHPs Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde. Purcey gained a victory when the Tigers rallied for a run in the bottom of the 10th.

BY THE NUMBERS
100 -- Career assists by RF Magglio Ordonez after he threw out RF/2B Ben Zobrist at the plate to end the seventh inning. Ordonez caught 1B Casey Kotchman's one-out fly to shallow right with the bases loaded and fired a one-hop strike to home for the double play.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"Somebody get Victor (Martinez) some oxygen while they were at it? He looked like he was going to pass out when he got up here." -- LHP Phil Coke, who went 6 1/3 innings as the starter, taking a verbal jab at the slow-running Detroit designated hitter after Martinez scored the winning run from first base with one out in the 10th inning.

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