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Guillen hits leadoff HR in 10th, Tigers beat Bucs

Jun 13, 2010 - 3:33 AM DETROIT(AP) -- Carlos Guillen was thinking he'd have a hard time running around bases. As it turned out, he didn't need any speed at all.

Guillen led off the 10th inning with a home run Saturday night, giving the Detroit Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"My calf started cramping in the first inning, and as the game went on, it was getting tighter," he said. "I finished the game, but I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow."

Guillen hit the third pitch from Brendan Donnelly (2-1) into the right-field stands, sending the Pirates to their seventh straight loss.

"I think it was a cutter inside, and with a 2-0 count, I was trying to drive the ball," Guillen said. "When I hit it, I knew it was gone."

Guillen took his time on the home-run trot. Keeping Kendry Morales' grand-slam broken leg in mind, kept his teammates from getting too vigorous with the celebration at the plate.

"We've got to learn to keep people healthy there," he said. "You have to celebrate, but in the right way."

If Guillen's ball had hit the wall, it would have still been the end of his night.

"If he got a hit, I was going to pinch-run for him," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "It worked out pretty good - that's the best way to get games over with in a hurry."

The Pirates matched their longest skid of the season. Leyland didn't want his current team to let down against the franchise he managed from 1986-1996.

"That doesn't matter - that's still a good major league team," Leyland said. "They've got one of the best young players in baseball in (Andrew) McCutchen, and some good, young athletes."

Phil Coke (4-0) got the win with a scoreless 10th.

The Pirates made it 3-all in the eighth when Jose Tabata stretched what looked like a routine one-out single into a double as center fielder Austin Jackson didn't react quickly enough. Tabata stole third and scored the tying run on Neil Walker's single through a drawn-in infield.

"That's just great effort by Jose," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "When you are playing like this, you have to make your own breaks, and that's what Jose did - he created a run by being aggressive on the bases."

The Tigers put runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth, but Brennan Boesch struck out.

Pittsburgh got a run in the second on Ryan Church's RBI double, and still had the bases loaded with one out, but Jason Jaramillo bounced into a 1-6-3 double play.

The Tigers tied the game in the bottom half on an unusual double play. With the bases loaded and no one out, Gerald Laird flied out to the wall in right-center field. Boesch scored from third, but Guillen was thrown out trying to take third.

Garrett Jones made it 2-1 with a long homer in the fourth. Ryan Doumit nearly gave the Pirates back-to-back homers, but the umpires ruled that a fan had reached into the field of play to catch the ball, and held him at second.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the fifth, but Guillen grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Detroit took the lead in the seventh. With two runners on and two out, reliever Evan Meek made a nice play on Boesch's slow grounder, but Doumit missed the throw at first base for an error and the ball rolled down the right-field line as two runs scored.

Doumit, normally a catcher, was playing first base for just the third time this season.

"The first thing they teach you when you start playing baseball as a kid is to keep your eye on the ball, and I didn't do that," he said. "It's tough trying to learn a new position at this level, under the microscope, but I have to make that play. It was a perfect throw."

NOTES: For Detroit's 16th annual Negro Leagues tribute game, the teams wore the uniforms of the Detroit Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords. ... Jackson's seventh-inning single ended Meek's six-game streak without allowing a hit. ... The Tigers have gone 31-6 in interleague games at Comerica Park since May 20, 2006. ... Jose Valverde struck out the side in the ninth, extending his scoreless streak to 25 games and 25 1-3 innings. ... Donnelly had won eight straight decisions since May 1, 2007.