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Cust's grand slam highlights eight-run sixth in wild win

Aug 11, 2007 - 3:54 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Oakland Athletics have made a habit of comeback wins lately, and Jack Cust put an exclamation point on the latest one.

Cust hit his first career grand slam and had a career-high seven RBI as the Athletics posted a wild 16-10 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Friday.

Cust, who also delivered a bases-clearing double in the third to give the Athletics a seemingly comfortable 6-1 lead, stepped up to the plate for the second time in the contest with the bases loaded and belted a blast to center off Tigers reliever Macay McBride (1-1) to put the A's back in front, 12-9, after Detroit had rallied for eight runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

"I hit the ball real good," Cust said. "It was right on the barrel of the bat. I hit it to the big part of the park, so I knew it would be at least at sacrifice fly. I was real happy when it out."

After Oakland starter Joe Blanton set down 10 of the first 11 Tigers he faced through 3 1/3 frames and was holding an 8-1 lead, the floodgates opened on the righthander following Gary Sheffield's solo blast in a five-run fourth, starting a stretch of five consecutive Detroit hitters to reach base. Marcus Thames ended the inning's scoring with his second grand slam of the season to narrow the gap to 8-6.

Detroit tallied three more runs in the fifth as four straight hitters reached base to open the frame, highlighted by Sheffield's RBI single and Magglio Ordonez's two-run double to push Detroit ahead, 9-8.

However, Oakland did not go away as eight consecutive batters reached base in between Kurt Suzuki strikeouts in the sixth. Fellow rookie Travis Buck, who finished just a homer short of the cycle, was hit by a pitch to start the stretch.

"Some of the guys keep telling to go for the homer," Buck said. "I'm not a home run hitter, but in the last at-bat, I went up to swing as hard as I could, but (Tigers relief pitcher Fernando) Rodney's a burner and he just blew my bat apart."

Shannon Stewart and Nick Swisher drew consecutive walks to load the bases for Cust.

"No lead is safe with a lineup like the Tigers," A's manager Bob Geren said. "It could have been very deflating for us when we lost the lead. But we able to come back, keep scoring and let the bullpen take care of the rest."

Buck finished with four hits and scored three times for the A's, who have come from behind in five of their last six wins and scored 16 or more runs in a game for the third time this season.

"This sure wasn't a pitching duel," Buck said. "I'm glad that we ended up with more runs than they did."

Ruddy Lugo (3-0) allowed a run and two hits over two innings to receive the win.

Ordonez finished with three hits, two RBI and two runs scored for the Tigers, who allowed double-digit runs in a contest for the 10th time this season.

The Tigers have lost three straight and six of their last eight games.

"With everything we've gone through, we're fortunate to be where we're at," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "But, in saying that, you also guard against people having an excuse. 'Oh, well, Skip thinks we're fortunate. We can't keep going.' This team, they're trying (hard), they battled (hard) tonight. I'm very proud of them. Our pitching, obviously, just had a terrible night. That happens."