Woeful Tigers End Losing Streak

After waiting two weeks for their first win of the season, the Detroit Tigers made sure to celebrate.

Randall Simon drove in three runs and Jose Lima pitched six scoreless innings as Detroit ended an 11-game skid with a 9-3 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday night at Detroit.

With the crowd standing and chanting “Let’s go Tigers,” Juan Acevedo pitched a scoreless ninth to end it. After Acevedo got Brent Abernathy on a comebacker for the final out, first baseman Dmitri Young jumped into the pitcher’s arms.

“I knew if I was involved with the last out, I was going to do something special, something stupid,” Young said with an ear-to-ear smile while opening a can of beer. “It feels great to get that first win out of the way. It’s just too bad we won’t be in the national spotlight anymore because I think this team is capable of playing some good ball.”

It was the first win for manager Luis Pujols, who replaced Phil Garner after six games.

While Young and Acevedo were hugging and dancing near first base, Pujols was engulfed in several embraces near the mound as the crowd of 13,256 cheered wildly.

Tampa Bay swept the Tigers to begin Detroit’s 0-11 start.

“With the chemistry this team has, we are capable of winning 12 or 13 in a row just as easy as we lost them,” shortstop Shane Halter said.

Minnesota 8, Kansas City 5--Torii Hunter went three for four with three runs scored at Minneapolis.

Through 14 games, Minnesota’s relievers are 4-0 with five saves in five chances and a 1.85 earned-run average in 511/3 innings. Tony Fiore, J.C. Romero and Mike Jackson gave up three hits in 32/3 innings Tuesday. Eddie Guardado pitched the ninth for his sixth save in six chances.

Minnesota’s rotation, thought to be the strength of the team with four pitchers who have been All-Stars, is 5-5 with a 7.56 ERA.

Hunter has 14 hits in his last 23 at-bats.

Chicago 10, Cleveland 5--Chuck Finley gave up nine runs--eight earned--and seven hits in 12/3 innings at Chicago and Cleveland’s 10-game win streak ended.

The Indian bullpen, best in the AL, also gave up its first run in 19 innings.

Magglio Ordonez hit a grand slam to cap a nine-run second inning for Chicago, which has won six of seven. Royce Clayton added a two-run homer, and Sandy Alomar Jr. had a two-run single. Kenny Lofton was one for five against his old team, but he had a beautiful catch in the fourth inning that robbed Cleveland of at least one run.

With an 11-1 record, Cleveland had the best record in the majors and was off to its fastest start since opening the 1966 season 14-1.

Boston 14, Toronto 3--Shea Hillenbrand hit a three-run homer, and Frank Castillo and Rolando Arrojo combined for a four-hitter at Toronto.

Hillenbrand hit his fifth homer of the season off Brandon Lyon (0-2) in the third inning, giving Boston a 5-0 lead. The second-year third baseman went two for four with three runs scored, raising his batting average to a team-high .413.

Baltimore 5, New York 4--Tony Batista homered and hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning at New York, handing the Yankees their sixth loss in seven games.

Roger Clemens bounced back from a rough start with seven solid innings, leaving with a 4-3 lead. But the Yankees could not hold it.

David Segui greeted reliever Ramiro Mendoza (0-1) with a home run in the eighth that tied the score at 4-4.