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Tigers pound Weaver, win series rubber game from Mariners

May 10, 2007 - 9:36 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Magglio Ordonez and the Detroit Tigers exacted a measure of revenge against Jeff Weaver.

Ordonez blasted his team-leading sixth home run and the Tigers pounded the struggling Weaver en route to a 7-3 triumph over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday afternoon.

It was the ninth victory in the last 10 games for Detroit, which had its season-high eight-game winning streak snapped with Wednesday's 9-2 loss to the Mariners.

However, the Tigers rebounded less than 24 hours later against Weaver, who started his career with Detroit in 1999 and recorded 39 wins in three-plus seasons here.

"Everybody made contributions," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "That's what it takes. The bullpen was outstanding and the guys came out ready to play today. I was real pleased today because we had won eight in a row and we got our (rears) kicked last night, and 12 hours later we come out and we were ready to play."

The last time Weaver faced his former club was in Game Five of last fall's World Series, when he pitched eight outstanding innings to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a series-clinching 4-2 victory.

Weaver (0-6) was not nearly as effective Thursday, yielding six runs and 10 hits in five innings to lose for the sixth time in six starts this season. The righthander did not walk a batter and struck out two.

"I felt I had good command," Weaver said. "But when I made a good pitch, they smashed it and when I made a bad pitch, it found a hole. I guess I should try throwing out of the zone instead of in. I really don't have the answer right now."

The Tigers got off to a quick start thanks to Ordonez, who entered with a career .303 average (10-for-33) against Weaver. After Gary Sheffield lofted a sacrifice fly to open the scoring in the first inning, Ordonez belted Weaver's first-pitch well over the left-field wall to make it 3-0.

"I was too agressive to Ordonez," Weaver said. "I wanted to bury my fastball down and in - it just didn't happen."

Detroit pushed its lead to 4-0 in the second inning on Placido Polanco's RBI single and added an insurance run in the fourth on Brandon Inge's solo blast - his fifth homer of the season.

"I've known (Weaver) for a while," Inge said. "Today he just pitched me well the first at-bat, second at-bat he got behind and just left a hanging breaking ball up there. I'm pretty sure that's not where he wanted to put it."

The cushion proved to be more than enough for starter Jason Verlander (3-1), the reigning American League Rookie of the Year.

Despite working out of trouble throughout the afternoon, Verlander held on to win his second straight start, yielding two runs and nine hits with one walk and five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.

Seattle finally got to Verlander in the fifth inning, when Jose Guillen and Ben Broussard hit back-to-back RBI singles to cut the deficit to 5-2.

"I felt like I had good stuff," Verlander said. "After the first, I felt like I was going pretty good. That last inning I felt like those guys were just really looking for fastballs, and they hit pretty good pitches."

"He's pretty good," Guillen said of Verlander. "He's on the top of my list, his ball just jumps. I don't know how you hit people like that."

But Detroit responded with a run in the bottom of the frame when Ordonez scored on Weaver's wild pitch. The Tigers tacked on another insurance run in the eighth inning when rookie Mike Rabelo plated Inge with a triple into the right-field corner.

Rabelo and Polanco each had three hits while Inge added a pair for the Tigers, who won the rubber game of this three-game series.

Guillen had three hits and two RBI while Raul Ibanez had two hits and scored two runs for the Mariners, who completed a 3-5 road trip.

"We swung the bats good but couldn't get the big hit," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "I don't have any problem on how our hitters approached the game. Verlander was good when he had to be."