• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Tata earns first win as Tigers beat A's

Jul 31, 2007 - 7:15 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Detroit Tigers showed no ill effects after getting swept by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim over the weekend.

Jordan Tata tossed seven strong innings to earn a win in his first major league start as the Tigers defeated the Oakland Athletics, 5-2, on Monday night.

A night after the Tigers were bludgeoned, 13-4, Curtis Granderson was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI while Placido Polanco also had three hits and an RBI.

"Granderson always sets the tone for us and Polanco normally keeps it going for us when we're doing good, that happens a lot," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "That happened tonight and we took advantage of it."

Detroit increased its lead over idle Cleveland (60-45) to one game in the American League Central.

"I just like to set the tone for the guys behind me," Granderson said. "Any way I can get on. That's the big thing I like about watching (Seattle's) Ichiro (Suzuki). He gets on there some way and gets things started. I didn't smash the ball but I got on base and sure enough Polanco executed behind me."

Tata (1-0) pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs while walking two and striking out five. The 25-year-old righthander was recalled when the Tigers placed veteran lefthander Kenny Rogers on the disabled list Sunday.

"(The A's) are a great team and they've been a great team for more than 10 years," Tata said. "Getting a win against any big league team would be great but a team that's as good as them makes it that much more special."

This marks Tata's second stint with the big-league club after making eight appearances out of the bullpen for last season's AL champions, compiling no record and a 6.14 ERA.

"I've always started and I've always wanted to start," Tata said. "Last year was something completely out of the blue. This time it was a process of working myself back and getting to this point. I feel like I really earned it this time. I can sleep easy tonight knowing I did my part in the minor leagues to get here."

Chad Durbin pitched a scoreless eighth and Todd Jones closed it out in the ninth to earn his 28th save.

"We needed it because we lost four straight," Jones said. "And to fly all night to San Francisco and then to face the A's in your first major league start is no easy task. But Jordan did a really great job tonight. It's exactly what we needed because we needed our starters to go six or seven innings and that's what the doctor ordered for sure."

Oakland's Joe Blanton (8-8) worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits and five runs to drop his fourth straight decision.

"I was all right. I fixed a few things mechanically and kept the ball down better than I had," Blanton said. "I had a pretty decent slider tonight and threw some pretty good off-speed pitches so not too bad."

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Granderson led off with a single and advanced to third on Polanco's single to right. Granderson came around to score on a double-play grounder by Gary Sheffield.

Oakland pulled ahead with a pair of runs in the fourth, with Marco Scutaro coming in to score on a double by Mark Kotsay and Kurt Suzuki plating Kotsay with a single to right.

Detroit, however, finally broke through against the hefty Blanton in the sixth and seventh, pushing across a pair of runs in each frame.

Granderson and Polanco were again in the mix, with Polanco driving in Granderson and coming home on All-Star Magglio Ordonez's RBI single to give the Tigers the lead, 3-2.

In the seventh, Craig Monroe singled to center to start the rally before Granderson singled and advanced to second. Polanco then popped up to shallow right and when A's second baseman Mark Ellis tried to make a highlight-reel catch and failed, Detroit was up, 5-2.

Ivan Rodriguez doubled high off the wall in right-center, giving Detroit at least one extra-base hit in each of the last 66 games.

"We believe in ourselves no matter what we've just done the day before," Granderson said. "We know we've got a good team. We can't get content. We can't get too far underneath as well, because we know we've got good pitchers, good hitters, good defense. As long as we get it together, get it rolling, whether its a blowout or 3-2, we know we've got enough stuff to go ahead and get a win."

Oakland, a perennial playoff contender over the last five seasons, is falling farther and farther back in the playoff race. The A's are 13 games back in the division and 11 1/2 games out in the wild card race.