• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Sheffield homers twice to power Tigers past Athletics

Sep 9, 2008 - 4:13 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Gary Sheffield homered twice - including a grand slam that helped put the game out of reach - to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 14-8 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Monday.

Sheffield broke a 2-2 tie in the first inning, driving an offering from Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez (1-4) over the left-field wall. An inning later, Sheffield highlighted a six-run frame with a grand slam, belting it to nearly the exact same spot in left and giving Detroit an 8-2 advantage. The two homers give him 496 for his career as he closes in on No. 500.

"It really probably won't hit me until I get one or two away," Sheffield said of his pending landmark. "Really, to me, four isn't close."

Casey Fossum (3-1) pitched 2 2/3 hitless innings to earn the victory. The veteran lefthander struck out one and walked one.

Gonzalez gave up nine runs - eight earned - in 1 2/3 innings, striking out one, walking two and hitting a pair of batters as well.

"It was a tough loss," Gonzalez said. "I take the blame on this one. It was a learning experience for me. I can only turn the page and see what happens tomorrow."

He essentially wasted one of the Athletics' best offensive showings in months. The six-run second proved to be the difference.

"We had a lot of good swings. Gary had two great swings," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "A lot of guys put good swings on the ball and hit the ball out of the ballpark."

The Oakland lefthander made things difficult on himself, hitting Mark Hessman with a pitch to start the inning. Brandon Inge made him pay moments later, ripping a triple to the right-center field gap to make it a 4-2 game. Gonzalez's control problems continued before finally being yanked with two outs in the inning. After getting his next two hitters to ground out, he walked Magglio Ordonez and plunked another Tiger - this time righthanded slugger Miguel Cabrera - to load the bases.

That left it up to Sheffield, whose 16th homer of the season was also his 13th career grand slam.

"It was good to come home and get some runs on the board first," Sheffield said.

Cabrera took Oakland reliever Josh Outman deep in the fourth, driving his 33rd homer of the year to center field to give Detroit an 11-3 advantage.

But with Detroit holding a comfortable advantage, the Athletics finally sprung to life in the fifth. With the team down 12-3, Jack Hannahan sparked a five-run inning with a run-scoring single. Eric Patterson followed two batters later with a run-scoring base hit of his own as the A's chased Zach Miner after 4 1/3 innings.

"It's a tough game to manage; a terrible game to manage," Leyland said. "Obviously, you want to get your starter through it for the win, but we couldn't do it."

Rajai Davis capped off the surge with a two-run single to cut the deficit to 12-8, but that was all the offense the club could muster, as Fossum and the rest of the Detroit bullpen shut the Athletics down the rest of the way.

"To me, (Fossum) was the key to the game," Leyland said. "He came in at 12-8 and shut it down."

Miner gave up eight runs and 11 hits, striking out three and walking two.

Ordonez went 3-for-3 with four runs scored and homered for the third consecutive day, a two-run shot in the first inning.

Tigers third baseman Mark Hessman was hit by a pitch twice in the second inning, becoming the second player in American League history to accomplish the dubious feat. The first was former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson, who did it in the first inning of 15-6 win over the Texas Rangers on April 23, 1999.

"It definitely wasn't intentional," Hessman said. "I had two strikes on me both at-bats."