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Sheffield, Bonderman help Tigers pound Devil Rays

May 30, 2007 - 3:50 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- The Detroit Tigers picked the right time to break out of their longest slide of the season. Jeremy Bonderman pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and the Tigers pounded out 22 hits en route to a 14-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday. Gary Sheffield homered twice and drove in five runs and Placido Polanco shook off his recent leg injury to club three hits, score a run and drive in a run for Detroit, which gained a game in the American League Central standings with the win coupled with the Cleveland Indians loss to the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers held a one-half game lead in the division until being swept by the Indians over the weekend, and missed an opportunity to gain a game back on Monday, when the Indians dropped a 5-3 decision to the Red Sox. Monday's 6-5 walk-off loss to the Devil Rays extended Detroit's season-high losing streak to four games.

"We had to keep the lead on these guys, they'll scrap to the last out," Sheffield said. "We let one (get away) yesterday, but we had a short memory and came back and scored a lot of runs."

Bonderman allowed two runs - one earned - and four hits while striking out eight. Detroit's ace has now made two starts since coming off the disabled list and has held The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Tampa Bay to a combined one earned run over 14 1/3 frames.

"I don't consider myself a stopper, we have tons of stoppers," Bonderman said. "We've been in a little funk."

The Tigers wasted little time jumping all over Devil Rays' starter Casey Fossum. Polanco, who had missed the last two games with a leg injury, knocked a one-out single in the first which Sheffield followed with a two-run blast.

"We've got a lot of guys that can hurt you," Sheffield said. "We were able to let Bonderman get settled in and then we came back and scored more runs."

After Magglio Ordonez extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a double and Carlos Guillen singled, Marcus Thames pushed an RBI single into right-center to extend the lead to 3-0.

"We have a good offensive ballclub," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "If pitchers make mistakes we're real dangerous. We're pretty good at hitting mistakes and pretty good at hitting them very far."

Fossum loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a hit batter without recording an out in the second frame before being replaced. Righthander Tim Corcoran came on in relief and forced Polanco into an RBI fielder's choice, and a throwing error brought in another run. Corcoran escaped further damage in the second, leaving Fossum with five earned runs and seven hits in just one inning pitched. It was the veteran lefthander's shortest outing since lasting 1 2/3 in his final start of 2006 - August 29 at the Chicago White Sox.

"They got to me early," Fossum said. "They jumped on me early and I couldn't get anything going."

Detroit put another five runs on the board in the sixth inning, when Brandon Inge drove in a pair with a single and Sheffield hit his second blast of the night, a three-run shot off reliever Shawn Camp. The Tigers added two more runs in each the seventh and the ninth.

"That was not a very pleasant experience," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Our guys kept battling away. I still felt if we had been able to keep it there (trailing 2-1 in the sixth), we'd have a chance."