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Sheffield homers twice as Tigers rout Rangers

Jun 7, 2007 - 4:29 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Gary Sheffield's words tend to get him into trouble. His bat doesn't seem to notice.

Sheffield shook off his most recent controversial comments and clubbed a pair of home runs to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 10-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

Justin Verlander (6-2) pitched seven scoreless innings to earn his sixth win for the Tigers, who have won three of their last four games.

Sheffield created some controversy earlier in the week when he said to GQ magazine, "What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. ... (It's about) being able to tell (Latin players) what to do - being able to control them. Where I'm from, you can't control us."

It seems to have no effect on his hitting, however, as the All-Star slugger now has three homers and eight RBI over his last three games.

Sheffield got started right away Wednesday, clubbing a two-run blast in his first at-bat off Rangers starter Kevin Millwood.

After Millwood (2-5) worked a 1-2-3 second inning, Brandon Inge led off the Detroit half of the third by drawing a walk and came around to score on Curtis Granderson's triple. Placido Polanco followed with an RBI single and Sheffield made Millwood pay with his second two-run blast of the night to push the Tigers' advantage to 6-0.

"You want to try to get (Millwood) early in the count," Sheffield said of his opposite-field shot in the third inning. I just hit the ball where he pitched it. He came up and in on a 3-2 slider and I was able to do something with it."

That was all the breathing room Verlander would need. The second-year righthander dominated the Texas lineup, allowing just five hits and two walks in seven frames while striking out six.

Verlander showed no ill effects from his outing last Thursday in which he surrendered a season-high seven runs in five innings in a loss at Cleveland.

"I wanted to go out there and get deep in the ballgame and give us a chance," Verlander said. "The offense came up big for me getting a lot runs early and allowed me to be aggressive."

Millwood was not quite as fortunate. The Rangers' ace was lifted after just 3 2/3 frames when Sheffield's fifth RBI of the night pushed the lead to 7-0. The veteran righthander allowed seven runs and nine hits while walking one and striking out five.

Millwood has made nine starts this season around two trips to the disabled list, and has last six innings only three times. He has yielded more than three runs in each of his last six outings.

"I'm trying everything I know to get things right and it's not working," Millwood said. "It's getting frustrating."

Detroit added two more runs in the fifth when Carlos Guillen and Ivan Rodriguez led off the inning with back-to-back homers off righthanded reliever Wes Littleton.