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Guillen's grand slam in first leads Tigers past Yankees

Aug 17, 2007 - 4:18 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- While it was not quite the playoff-charged environment of October, it was certainly a familiar sight when Carlos Guillen homered off Mike Mussina.

Guillen hit a grand slam off Mussina with one out in the top of the first inning as the Detroit Tigers recorded an 8-5 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday.

"Every game is big for us," said Guillen, who had been battling a mild case of the flu this week. "I just tried to hit a ball hard and I hit a changeup. When I got two strikes, I just tried to put the ball in play."

The opener of the four-game series marked the first meeting between the teams since the American League Division Series. The Tigers won that series in four games after losing the series opener, swept Oakland in the ALCS before falling in five games to St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

The turning point of that series might have been Game Two, which was an afternoon game following a lengthy rain delay that caused a postponement. The Yankees opened a 3-1 lead but Mussina gave up a game-tying home run in the sixth to Guillen, the Tigers eventually won by one run and easily won their two games at Comerica Park to clinch the series.

Unlike their first postseason victory since 1987, the Tigers did not have to worry about a comeback in this one.

After Mussina (8-8) recorded the first out, the next three hitters reached ahead of Guillen, who then hit Mussina's 2-2 offering into the right field seats for his 15th home run and third career grand slam.

"It did (remind me of the playoffs)," Tigers starter Justin Verlander said. "It was a good pitch and he put a good swing on it. But that's baseball. Hitters get paid to hit good pitches too."

It also was Guillen's second grand slam at Yankee Stadium and first home in 33 games. He also hit one here on August 7, 2000 off Denny Neagle for the Seattle Mariners.

"We come out and got a big blow, which helps obviously," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "You know you're going to have put up some runs when you play these guys."

"It was big," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said. "It was big just to (get four in the first). Anytime you get a 4-0 lead like that off the bat is pretty good, especially in here. These guys are such a good team. They're capable of putting up high numbers at any point."

Detroit posted its major league-leading 37th road win and won for just the seventh time in its last 20 contests. The Tigers took a 6-1 lead on RBI singles by Brandon Inge and Magglio Ordonez in the second before adding a run in the fifth on a run-scoring base hit by Sean Casey.

The Tigers added an insurance run in the seventh when Ivan Rodriguez homered off Ron Villone.

In the opener of a difficult 14-game stretch against the Tigers, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox, the Yankees received a sub-par outing from Mussina, who was reached for seven runs and nine hits in five innings.

"He just looked like he wasn't able to do what he wanted to do and it looked like he was trying to make pitches," Torre said. "They're a tough team to pitch to and he just got bad counts. First inning, a lot of bad counts and I think that was his undoing."

Mussina had won his last four starts but equaled a season high in runs and lost for the first time since July 20 against Tampa Bay.

"It was a struggle from the beginning and kind of makes what I've done over the last couple of weeks seem a long time ago," Mussina said. "I only get out there every fifth game or so and I have to do my job when it's my turn to play. And today I didn't do that and that's frustrating."

Verlander (13-4), who opposed Mussina in the playoffs, lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs and six hits. He struck out two, walked one and threw 74 of his 119 pitches for strikes.

Verlander finished with second-highest pitch count of the season, one shy of his season high set in Boston on May 15 when he pitched 7 2/3 frames. He did all of that despite being one of many Tigers to still be battling the flu.

"Obviously I would have liked to gone a little deeper," Verlander said. "But you got to credit the Yankees, they've got a good lineup and they got some guys that are battling and fouling off some good pitches."

"He had been sick, his body was aching a little bit lately," Leyland said. "I think his pitch count got up there and he couldn't go anymore. His arm felt great but his body was a little sore."

Verlander's night ended with one out in the sixth after he gave up a single to Jason Giambi. Tim Byrdak gave up a two-out single to Melky Cabrera and was replaced by Zach Minor when Shelley Duncan was announced as a pinch hitter for Johnny Damon.

Minor, who also was battling the flu, fanned Duncan and also struck out the side in the seventh. Fernando Rodney put two on in the eighth but also struck out the side and Todd Jones yielded two runs in the ninth for Detroit, which moved one half game ahead of Cleveland in the AL Central.

Bobby Abreu hit a two-run home run in the third for the Yankees, who have lost three in a row for the first time in nearly two months. New York has been outscored 26-8 in its last three games and is one half-game behind Seattle in the wild card race and 5 1/2 behind Boston in the AL East.

The series opener marked the return of Detroit designated hitter Gary Sheffield. Sheffield was traded to the Tigers in the offseason, made some controversial comments about Torre and was booed loudly in each of his five plate appearances.