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Cabrera, Porcello lead Tigers' 9-0 win over Twins

May 6, 2009 - 3:03 AM By LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writer

DETROIT(AP) -- The Detroit Tigers almost had a perfect night.

A lineup shakeup woke up their offense and rookie Rick Porcello threw seven scoreless innings in Detroit's 9-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

The Tigers, though, could not rejoice entirely because Magglio Ordonez continued his season-long slump and Carlos Guillen went on the disabled list.

"We're not going to be able to win unless we get Guillen back healthy and producing the way we know he will, and get Magglio going," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "This is a nice little change, and probably came at the right time. But this is one night. I'm not going to get too excited."

Ordonez went 0-for-4 after being dropped to sixth in a starting lineup for the first time since 1998.

Clete Thomas - who hit third in place of Ordonez - had a double, two-run triple and single in his first three at-bats of the season for the Tigers.

In his two plate appearances, he swung for the fences hoping to hit for the cycle, but had a walk and groundout.

"Other than that, it was awesome," said Thomas, who played for Triple-A Toledo at Pawtucket the previous night.

Miguel Cabrera went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and four RBIs, delivering as he has during much of his second year with the Tigers. His shot went an estimated 440 feet to left field, clearing the first section of seats, for his seventh home run this season.

Leyland left Cabrera in the cleanup spot, but had Josh Anderson lead off instead of Curtis Granderson in the hopes of fixing an inconsistent offense.

Anderson had two hits and an RBI and Granderson hit his ninth homer one at-bat after Cabrera's home run.

Porcello (2-3) gave up four hits and lasted seven innings, matching his best performance in those categories in five starts.

"He was really tough to pick up," Minnesota's Alexi Casilla said. "He was hitting both corners, and we didn't know where he was going to put the ball."

Porcello said it helped to get the run support he did.

"It makes it a lot easier," he said, "when you can go after guys with fastballs and not worry about pitching around them or giving up a run."

Nick Blackburn (2-2) gave up a career-high nine runs - six earned - eight hits and three walks over 3 1-3 innings.

Blackburn was shaky, but three errors certainly didn't help him out.

"We played terribly behind Blackie," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "But he's still got to go out there and pitch and get through the innings."

Jason Kubel was 3-for-4 for the Twins.

A night after beating Detroit 7-2, Gardenhire was disappointed with his team's performance.

"That's a bad night," Gardenhire said. "You come out like that, and you wonder if you even prepared for the game. To play as good as we did (Monday) and as bad as we did tonight - that's not what you are looking for. You need some consistency.

"This wasn't acceptable. This is not the way we play baseball."

Notes: Thomas was put in the lineup after Detroit placed Guillen on the 15-day DL with shoulder and Achilles' tendon injuries. ... Thomas has had two extra-base hits in two games and both times Blackburn was the opposing pitcher. ... Twins first base coach Jerry White returned to the field after being helped off it Monday night when Joe Crede hit him with a foul ball. "Jerry's fine," Gardenhire said. "I just saw him walk in here in cowboy boots, so he can't be too badly injured. He's mainly complaining about his shoulder, because we had one guy helping him off the field that was about 5-foot-6 and one that was 6-6, so he was stretched out."