For Tigers, Good Inning Isn’t Enough

For an inning at least, the Detroit Tigers snapped out of their woeful hitting and knocked the Angels’ pitching silly Friday night at Anaheim Stadium.

The game took a decided turn for the worse for the Angels in the fourth inning, though they eventually rallied for an 8-7 victory on Wally Joyner’s two-run homer in the ninth.

It’s possible to be more specific, but the hits in that fourth inning all seemed to blur together.

Entering the inning, the Angels led, 4-2. But two singles, three doubles and nine batters later, the lead had disappeared as had starter Mike Witt, who left after 3 2/3 innings.

Witt was shaky from the start, allowing runs in the first two innings. But in the third, he retired the Tigers in order.

Then the nightmarish fourth began.

Keith Moreland started the inning with a single to right field.

Chet Lemon, a lifetime .429 hitter against Witt but just a .250 hitter against the rest of the league this season, forced Moreland. After Doug Strange flied out, it all unraveled for Witt.

Gary Pettis, fresh off a four-strikeout performance Thursday night, singled through Witt’s legs and into center field. It was the second hit of the night for Pettis, who came into the game hitting .232 with three RBIs and one home run.

Lemon raced around to third on Pettis’ single.

Up stepped Mike Heath, who lined a double down the right-field line that scored Lemon and Pettis.

Tigers 4, Angels 4.

Dave Bergman placed a sinking liner just inside the right-field line for a double to score Heath.

Tigers 5, Angels 4.

Next up was Tracy Jones, who, just to be different doubled down the left-field line, scoring Bergman.

Tigers 6, Angels 4.

Three doubles and you’re out was the way pitching coach Marcel Lachemann figured and he took Witt out of the game and replaced him with Rich Monteleone at that point.

Monteleone watched as Jones took third base on Lance Parrish’s passed ball. Then, he turned around and walked Lou Whitaker.

Next came Alan Trammell, the ninth batter in the inning. Trammell hit a sharp line drive, but it was right at second baseman Johnny Ray, who caught it for the third out.

Four runs on five hits.

Not a bad showing for a team that ranks last in the American League in hitting. The Tigers came into the game with a paltry .242 team batting average.

Only Moreland, who’s hitting .313, is above .300. The next highest is Jones with a .283 average.

Whitaker, who hit his 20th home run of the season in the ninth inning, is the lone Tiger among AL leaders.

To make matters worse, catcher Matt Nokes, who is one of the few power-hitters on the Tiger roster, is on the disabled list with an injured knee suffered when Chili Davis collided with him in June.

It’s no wonder the Tigers are in last place in the AL East and have the worst record (33-60) in the majors.

They’ve been there since June 7 and don’t appear to be capable of moving out of there anytime soon.

But for an inning Friday, they seemed to put it all together.