Wow! Tigers Spank Mariners 17-3

Bobby Higginson and the Detroit Tigers had nearly no offense during the first month of the season. On Friday night, they had no mercy.

Higginson homered twice and had four hits as the Tigers routed Seattle 17-3, Detroit's highest-scoring game in five years.

"Tonight we were making up for the first month," Higginson said. "Even when we were up by 10, you still wanted to beat the ball up."

Detroit, a major-league-worst 6-18 in April, scored its most runs since a 17-1 win over Minnesota on April 24, 1993.

"We could have used a couple of those runs on other days," manager Buddy Bell said.

Detroit had 20 hits, its most since last Aug. 22 against Milwaukee, and the most off the Seattle since an 18-3 loss to Anaheim last May 21. The Mariners have lost five of six, dropping to 12-16.

"You fall behind so big, so early, so far, then whatever you've got is taken away," Seattle manager Lou Piniella said.

The Tigers, who matched their longest winning streak of the season at two, had six doubles and scored in every inning except the fourth and ninth.

Higgins hit a solo homer in the first off Bill Swift (2-1), another solo homer off Felipe Lira in the sixth, and drove in three runs. Andy Tomberlin also had four hits for the Tigers.

Swift, who had been 4-0 against Detroit, was pounded for 10 runs and 10 hits in four-plus innings, the most runs he allowed since giving up eight for Colorado against Los Angeles on April 7, 1995.

"They came out swinging," he said. "They hit some good pitches, they hit some bad pitches."

Tim Worrell (2-3) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He left with a 10-3 lead.

"That was a ton of hitting," Worrell said.

After Higginson's third homer of the season, Detroit took a 3-0 lead in the second on Tomberlin's RBI single and Frank Catalanotto's sacrifice fly.

The Tigers made it 7-0 in the third when Tomberlin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Paul Bako hit a three-run double -- his first major-league hit.

"That was the biggest hit of the game," Bell said. "We finally got a big hit with the bases loaded."

"It felt great to get my first hit out of the way and push the team to a big lead," Bako said.

Alex Rodriguez hit a run-scoring single in the bottom half, but Damion Easley's two-run double chased Swift in the fifth. Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the bottom half, his 10t, as the Mariners closed to 9-3.

Detroit added a run in the sixth on Higginson's second homer, four more in the seventh off Lira on a run-scoring error by second baseman Joey Cora, Brian Hunter's RBI single, Higginson's run-scoring double and Kimera Bartee's RBI single off Heathcliff Slocumb. Joe Randa added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

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