Detroit Blanks Angels

DETROIT — Angel Manager Terry Collins’ father, his sisters, and about 10 childhood buddies, including one who brought old photos from their Little League team for him to autograph, were in Tiger Stadium Monday for Collins’ first appearance as a professional player or manager in his native state.

“I had been looking forward to this day for a long time,” said Collins, who grew up in Midland, Mich., about two hours north of Detroit, and played baseball at Eastern Michigan University.

“Growing in Michigan meant you were a Tiger fan, and to play here means a lot to me . . . but this is not exactly what I pictured, getting . . . shut out.”

So much for joyous homecomings. Detroit right-hander Omar Olivares spoiled the day for Collins and the Angels, pitching a four-hitter to lead the Tigers to a 6-0 victory before 12,562.

The Angels never mounted a threat, failing to get a runner past second base, and the team that scorched the ball to win 10 of 11 games has lost two in a row.

Angel starter Chuck Finley, the victim of a 2-0 Tiger shutout on April 26 and the beneficiary of 18 runs in his last start against Seattle Wednesday, retired the first nine batters and gave up only one run on one hit through five innings.

But Brian Hunter’s triple and Jody Reed’s single gave Detroit a 2-0 lead in the sixth, and Finley gave up two singles to open the eighth before giving way to Mike James, who walked three and gave up a two-run single to Travis Fryman as the Tigers pulled away with a four-run outburst.

“Chuck kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win,” Collins said. “But it doesn’t matter when you don’t score.”

Collins said his most outstanding memories of Tiger Stadium as a kid were of Ted Williams once hitting two home runs in a game, seeing Mickey Mantle, and watching Tiger greats such as Willie Horton, Al Kaline and Denny McLain.

But he left the 85-year-old stadium Monday with visions of Tony Clark and Olivares running through his mind.

Clark, the Tiger first baseman who is known more for his potent bat than his glove, made a phenomenal play to end the top of the first inning when, with Darin Erstad on first, he dove for Jim Edmonds’ grounder near the bag and knocked it a few feet into foul territory.

Clark lunged for the ball near the first-base coach’s box and, as he fell on his chest, flipped a reverse, no-look toss to the base, where Olivares made a bare-handed grab and stepped on the bag before Edmonds arrived.

“That’s the basketball in him,” Tiger Damion Easley said of Clark, who played college basketball at Arizona and San Diego State. “He snuck one in the low post.”

Collins said if Clark had overthrown Olivares, “there was no one in the middle of the infield, and we’d have had guys on second and third, easily,” he said. “But that was some kind of play.”

Olivares took over from there, using a fastball that dipped and darted in all directions, a slider and a change-up to record the Tigers’ fifth shutout of the season and lower the earned-run average of Detroit starters to 3.83. Olivares has not given up an earned run in 23 consecutive innings at home.

“He normally doesn’t have that good a command of his pitches, but if he throws like that he’s going to win some games,” said Angel designated hitter Tony Phillips, who went 0 for 4, striking out twice.

The Tigers are the most improved team in baseball; their 22-26 start is 10 games better than their 12-36 start in 1996, and pitching and defense, like Monday, have been the key.

“They’re playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” said Phillips.