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Tigers pound Glavine to take series from Mets

Jun 10, 2007 - 9:53 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Detroit Tigers scored six runs in the fifth inning and held off the New York Mets from there for a 15-7 victory on Sunday.

Detroit slugger Gary Sheffield had four hits, falling a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

He had a home run, a triple and two singles in the win.

"I heard of couple of fans yell for me to get the cycle," Sheffield said. "I was going for it in that last at-bat. Anytime you have a chance at that kind of accomplishment, you have to go after it. But with a sinker-ball pitcher, I was lucky to make contact."

Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe, Ivan Rodriguez and Placido Polanco finished with three hits apiece in Detroit's 21-hit attack.

That gave Detroit rookie lefthander Andrew Miller his second win in as many career starts, while Mets lefthander Tom Glavine (5-4) took the loss.

Miller, 22, pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and three walks while striking out five.

"It's always easier on the pitcher when they score a lot of runs for you," Miller said. "I got us in a hole early, but I was able to pound my fastball and put zeroes on the board for a few innings.

"The most important thing was the win for us. I threw way too many pitches and I needed to go deeper into the game then I did."

Glavine allowed nine runs on 11 hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. The 41-year-old struck out a pair. It was the fourth time in Glavine's career that he allowed nine runs in a game, with the last time coming in 1999 in Milwaukee.

"It was a bad day," Glavine said. "I made some mistakes and they made me pay for it. I didn't feel like I had terrible stuff, but certainly not my best.

"One of those days where no matter what you tried to do, or whatever adjustments you tried to make, it didn't work."

Polanco led off the fifth with a single for the Tigers, and Sheffield followed with a triple to center field to make it 5-3 in favor of the Tigers. After an out, Omar Infante reached on a bunt single to score Sheffield, and Rodriguez followed with a double to right field, moving Infante to third.

Sean Casey promptly singled to right, plating both Infante and Rodriguez making it 8-3 to chase Glavine from the game. Inge, who had a career-high five RBI, greeted Mets reliever Aaron Sele with a two-run homer over the left-field wall to give Detroit a 10-3 lead.

"It's funny," Inge said. "I'm just trying to make it and the hits just keep coming. When I feel good, I can't buy a hit but now that I'm feeling a little bad (broken toe), I'm making good contact and the ball is finding the holes."

The Mets got back within 10-6 as Carlos Gomez hit a three-run shot off Jason Grilli for his first major league homer.

"It was just one of those days," Mets catcher Paul La Duca said. "They're good two-strike hitters. They're just swinging the bats well."

Detroit made it 11-6 in the sixth with an RBI single by Infante.

"We're are good hitting team," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We capitalized on the other teams mistakes. We whacked the ball around pretty good this weekend."

David Wright opened the scoring by smacking a three-run homer off Miller in the first inning to give the Mets a quick 3-0 lead. The home run extended Wright's hitting streak to 12 games.

The Tigers got on the board in the bottom half of the first on Sheffield's 17th homer, and pulled within a run in the second on an RBI single by Inge.

Rodriguez tripled home Polanco and Infante in the third inning to put the Tigers ahead 4-3.

A double by Damion Easley in the eighth inning accounted for New York's final run.

The Tigers tacked on four runs in the eighth, keyed by a two-run single from Inge.

Detroit shortstop Carlos Guillen left the game in the bottom of the third inning with a left hamstring spasm.