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Casey leads balanced attack as Tigers rout Nationals

Jun 20, 2007 - 4:38 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Sean Casey homered and drove in a season-high four runs as the Detroit Tigers coasted to a 15-1 triumph over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

Magglio Ordonez went 3-for-3 with two RBI to raise his American League-leading average to .377 for Detroit, which collected 17 hits in winning its third straight game.

The Tigers jumped all over starter Jason Simontacchi (4-5). Ordonez hit a two-run double, Carlos Guillen added an RBI groundout and Casey capped the three-run first inning with a run-scoring double.

"That's the best team we have played so far," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "They're the best-hitting team in the world. It's no coincidence that this club was in the World Series, and I wouldn't bet against them being there again.

"We just thank God it only counts for one, and that's it. Shower, go home, and be ready to play (Wednesday)."

Detroit continued to pour it on in the fourth as Guillen laced an RBI single and Casey delivered his first blast of the season - a three-run shot - to push the lead to 7-0.

"I was going to kid (Casey) and tell him the rain was supposed to come in the fourth inning," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I was really nervous about that, to be honest with you, after we got those runs I thought: 'Geez, we might get a rainout here or something.'

"But he's swinging the bat really good. A professional hitter - he's been that way for a long time and he's starting to produce some more runs for us and that's what we need out of him. I was going to kid him, but he's a nervous wreck so."

Casey confirmed Leyland's sentiment.

"I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've had thinking," he said about getting his first homer. "So it was nice to get it out of the way. And hitting it here, too - you've really got to hit it - so at least I knew it was legit."

Casey entered the contest with a .400 career batting average (74-for-85) in 52 games against the Washington-Montreal franchise, a mark that leads all active major league players. He has scored 38 runs while collecting six homers, 18 doubles, a triple and 48 RBI against the Nationals-Expos.

"Do I really?" Casey said. "You know what's funny? I guess you just forget that they were the Expos. I always enjoyed hitting at Olympic Stadium. I don't know why. I always had success there. It's funny. I think sometimes you just end up hitting well against certain clubs."

Casey also walked and eventually scored on Brandon Inge's three-run double to the gap in right-center field, giving Detroit a commanding 13-0 edge in the fourth off Washington reliever Levale Speigner.

Leyland praised Casey's professionalism in realizing that the waiting can be the hardest part.

"We kid him about it but he's one of those fun-loving guys and he takes it," Leyland said. "Everybody's been kidding him and they gave him a little bit of the silent treatment when he came in. He's one of the most popular players in the league. He talks to everybody.

"So we're all happy for him because one thing about Sean is he's a great teammate, and we preach that a lot around here. That's very important if you want to be a member of the Tigers, and he's a great teammate."

Gary Sheffield's single in the fourth chased Simontacchi, who matched a dubious franchise record by allowing 10 runs in a game for the first time since Shayne Bennett surrendered 10 in four frames against Colorado on August 15, 1999.

Simontacchi was hammered for 10 runs and 10 hits with two walks in three innings.

"That was a doozy," Simontacchi said. "A couple of those guys probably got black eyes going to their bat rack. What do you say after a game like this?

"I should've been a BP pitching coach or something, I don't know. A batting practice pitcher or something. It's just one of those games that anything I threw up, it was hit hard, see ya later. It was just ridiculous."

Detroit starter Chad Durbin (6-3) had a far better outcome, yielding one run and five hits over a solid six innings. The righthander struck out five and walked none to snap his personal two-game slide.

"I felt good - like I could get the ball over the plate," Durbin said. "Just working the ball in and out and keeping the guys off-balance. They're real aggressive."

Durbin felt at home pitching on a muggy night with a game-time temperature of 91 degrees.

"I grew up in Louisiana, so this isn't far from what I grew up in playing three games on a Saturday," Durbin said. "Obviously, I'm removed from that now so I made sure I drank a good bit of water and I didn't run my ground balls out too hard to first base. I tried to reserve some energy and made sure I stuck to it."

With four-time American League All-Star lefthander Kenny Rogers scheduled to join the Tigers' rotation Friday after completing a rehab assignment in the minors, Durbin knows that he's trying to stick with a crowded stable of live arms in Detroit.

"Absolutely not," Durbin said when asked if he was concerned. "You go out and you do your work and the decisions they make are going to be the right decisions no matter what they are. You have to take them as they are and take the next step."

Leyland isn't concerned, either.

"When Kenny comes back, we know we're going to have (Jeremy) Bonderman, (Justin) Verlander and Kenny - we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out with (Mike) Maroth, Durbin and (Nate) Robertson," Leyland said. "We're going to have a logjam, and we're just going to try to make the best decisions for the organization.

"I'm not going to be premature on it. I've been saying all along that if someone would've went out and given up five runs (Tuesday) or (Monday), it wouldn't have made any difference. And if they would've pitched a no-hitter it probably wouldn't have made any difference. We're just going to have to make a decision at some time, and obviously somebody is going to be the odd man out."

Marcus Thames also drove in two runs for the Tigers, who improved to 4-1 on their nine-game tour of the National League.

Thames' pinch-hit homer in the ninth helped Detroit eclipse its season high for runs this season.

"When you've got guys like Marcus Thames coming off the bench, you know you've got a pretty good team because he's a pretty special player," Casey said.

Former Tiger Dmitri Young had two doubles and was the only batter with more than one hit for the Nationals, who allowed a season-high 15 runs. Washington has lost four of its last five.

"The only thing that can stop them from winning is themselves," Young said. "They swing the bats extremely well and they've got the pitching. Barring injury, they may be the team to beat.

"They just kept coming and coming and coming. We were in the field way too long. I mean, they were hitting everything. There was nothing anyone could have thrown. They were hitting curveballs, fastballs, split-finger - they were hitting it all."