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Tigers pound Chico, hold on over Nats

Jun 19, 2007 - 3:55 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Marcus Thames, Carlos Guillen and the rest of the defending American League champions made it a quick night for rookie Matt Chico.

Thames and Guillen each homered and the Detroit Tigers pounded Chico before holding on for dear life in a 9-8 triumph over the Washington Nationals on Monday in the opener of a three-game interleague series.

The Tigers improved to 3-1 on their current nine-game road trip, which concludes this weekend in Atlanta. They also won their major league-leading 22nd road game, but not before taking a deep breath in the ninth.

"It got a little hairy there in the end," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We got it done. Getting the win was the most important thing."

Leading, 9-5, closer Todd Jones made it interesting, yielding a two-run triple to Cristian Guzman and an RBI single by Felipe Lopez. With runners on first and second and no outs, Jones then struck out Dmitri Young before getting Austin Kearns and pinch hitter Ronnie Belliard on groundouts.

Long before Jones' struggles, Chico (3-5) was in a whole lot of trouble. The lefthander had not allowed more than four runs in any of his last eight starts, but Detroit tagged him for eight runs and nine hits in four-plus frames.

"I thought after the first inning I was OK. It kind of got away from me," Chico said. "All my fastballs were up, my slider, and change up. I just didn't execute."

Thames started the assault with an RBI single in the second and belted his fifth homer of the season in the fifth off reliever Winston Abreu that extended the advantage to 9-1.

"I was happy to contribute. It turned out that my homer was the deciding run, so you never know," Thames said. You can't let up or take things for granted when you have a comfortable lead."

Guillen doubled and scored in the second, drilled his 10th blast of the season in the fourth and greeted Abreu with a two-run single in the fifth.