By Matt Harding
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Detroit came into the Tuesday evening contest 33-29, just 2.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins. Their opponents, the Washington Nationals, were 31-33, six games behind the Atlanta Braves. However, the Nats are stuck in a tough National League East, where, with their almost .500 winning percentage, they were in last place.
Starting for the Tigers was pitcher Max Scherzer, who began the game by striking out Christian Guzman. Nyjer Morgan, the second batter for the Nationals, laid a perfect bunt down the third base line. Morgan reached first base without a throw. Then, before Scherzer could bat an eye, Morgan stole second. The speedster then reached third base on a wild throw by catcher Gerald Laird. Morgan later scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Zimmerman, making the score 1-0. Slugger Adam Dunn finished off the inning by striking out looking on a 3-2 fastball.
Starting for the Nationals was lefty John Lannan, who started off the bottom of the first with a strikeout. Ryan Raburn, who is standing in for an injured Austin Jackson, (who is listed as day-to-day) was the victim and went down looking.
In the top of the second, with Roger Bernadina on first and Josh Willingham on third, Scherzer got first baseman Mike Morse to strike out swinging. Shortstop Ian Desmond flew out to left field on a slider to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, Brandon Inge extended his hitting streak to 10 games. The next batter, Laird, smoked the pitch right back to the pitcher; the ball deflected to a spot between the first and second basemen where there would be no throw.
With the bases loaded and nobody out for the Tigers, Danny Worth grounded out to the shortstop who threw home, forcing out Carlos Guillen. The bases remained loaded and up walked Ryan Raburn, who on a 3-2 count, got the base on balls, tying up the game at one. The inning ended after another force out at the plate, initiated by a Johnny Damon ground ball, and a fly ball by Magglio Ordonez.
To lead off the third inning, Scherzer once again struck out Guzman. Morgan then singled up the middle and stole second base while Zimmerman struck out. Dunn was walked on four straight balls. Laird, on the 0-2 pitch to Willingham, called for a high fastball. However, Scherzer let it catch too much of the plate and Willingham took the ball to right-center field, scoring a run. Former Tiger Ivan Rodriguez then came up and grounded the ball through the infield, scoring another run. With the score 3-1, Tiger's pitching coach Rick Knapp came to the mound to settle down Scherzer. Stepping to the plate with two outs was Bernadina, who struck out looking. Scherzer's strikeout total after the third inning was six. For those of you bad at math, that's an average of two an inning.
In the bottom half of the third, Miguel Cabrera scored on a slow ground ball hit by Guillen. The ball was thrown home by Morse to an unprepared 'Pudge' Rodriguez.
Leading off the top of the fourth inning Morse made up for his previous inning mistake, hitting a solo home run to right field.
With the score 4-2 and a runner on second base, Ordonez rocketed a ball off of the left field wall, scoring Raburn. With an empty first base, the Nationals elected to walk Cabrera. Rookie Brennan Boesch, with one away and a full count, walked to load the bases. Guillen got the sac fly, tying the game at four in this tight contest.
Fast forwarding to the bottom of the fifth inning, with two men on, Raburn smashed a three-run dinger (his first of the year) to straightaway left field. The Tigers led the game 7-4. After facing one more batter, Lannan exited the game. He gave way to reliever Tyler Walker, who immediately gave up a double to Ordonez. No damage was done after the hit by Maggs.
After a rather uneventful sixth inning, in the top of the seventh, Phil Coke replaced Scherzer, who went six solid innings. Coke then pitched well, giving up no hits during that half inning.
Heading to the top of the eight, set-up man Joel Zumaya entered the game with one out for the Tigers. He pitched just as well as Coke, putting down both of the batters he faced, including former battery mate Ivan Rodriguez, who tonight made his first appearance at Comerica Park in a National's uniform.
At the start of the bottom of the eighth, lefty Sean Burnett relieved Walker. Burnett gave Ordonez his fourth hit of the evening, then struck out Cabrera and Boesch. With two outs, Guillen flew out to center field, ending the inning.
Closer Jose Valverde came into the game with a 0.66 ERA and started the inning off by hitting Bernadina with a first pitch fastball. The eccentric righty then struck out Morse, who went down check-swinging. Desmond then went down swinging; he was number 13 on the night for Tiger's pitching. After walking Guzman, Nyjer Morgan walked up to the plate at 2 for 4 on the night. Morgan was retired on a ground ball to the second baseman Guillen.
The Tigers beat the Nats with a score of 7-4.
Livan Hernandez faces off against Justin Verlander in tomorrow's match-up.
