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Shields helps Devil Rays down Tigers

Aug 9, 2007 - 6:01 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Detroit Tigers remain clueless against James Shields.

Shields tossed seven outstanding innings as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays snapped their three-game slide with a 7-1 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday night.

The 25-year-old Shields yielded one run and five hits with nine strikeouts to improve to 2-0 against the Tigers. On May 30, he dazzled through nine frames for his second complete-game win of the season in a 5-3 triumph over Detroit at Tropicana Field.

The righthander's lone mistake Wednesday came in the fourth inning, when All-Star Placido Polanco delivered his seventh homer over the left field wall.

"I changed mechanics a little bit for this game," Shields said. "I thought I pitched really well, except for the home-run ball. All of my pitches were working and I was very confident."

It was the ninth time Shields (9-7) has fanned at least eight batters, with five of those performances coming against an American League Central Division foe.

"When you pitch against teams as good as are in our league, you have to step up your game," Shields said. "That's what I have been able to do."

Tampa Bay's offense wasted little time supplying Shields with some early run support. In the first, B.J. Upton and Delmon Young both lofted sacrifice flies against Tigers starter Chad Durbin (7-4) for a 2-0 edge.

Young delivered a two-out, run-scoring single in the fifth and Dioner Navarro launched his fifth homer this season - a two-run blast - an inning later against Detroit reliever Macay McBride to make it 5-1.

Navarro finished with three hits to raise his batting average to a meager .201. He also homered in Tuesday's loss.

"We should be three up on this team," Young said. "They're a good offensive team and keep coming back. The way to beat them is to keep putting runs on the board."

"Letting them get those add-on runs killed us," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Durbin was fine, but we knew that even if he pitched well, he wouldn't pitch long, and we let them keep adding on runs. You can't do that against a guy like Shields."

Durbin allowed three runs and six hits with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. The righthander suffered his first setback as a starter since dropping consecutive starts from July 8-14.

"I was slow in the first inning and gave up two runs," Durbin said. "I got out of it and was hoping to get through five and give the (bullpen) a break. You have to give those young guys over there credit, they got some big hits when they needed them."

With the loss, Detroit (63-50) fell into a tie with the Seattle Mariners (62-49) in the race for the American League wild card. The Tigers remained one-half game behind the Cleveland Indians (64-50) in the AL Central.

Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield finally returned to the lineup after missing the past five games with a shoulder injury. He went 1-for-4 with a double in the first inning.

"I felt pretty good out there," Sheffield said. "It was good to get a hit on my first at-bat. The more pitches that I see, the more confident I'll get."