Tigers pound Zito, A’s
OAKLAND, Calif. – Brandon Inge, Nate Robertson and the Detroit Tigers are showing no signs of slowing down in the American League playoffs.
Inge hit a solo home run and RBI double from the bottom of the order, Ivan Rodriguez also homered and Robertson pitched the Tigers past the Oakland Athletics 5-1 Tuesday night in Game 1 of the A.L. Championship Series.
The Tigers battered Barry Zito, turned four double plays and once again relied on their flame-throwing relievers. Only one thing went wrong: Sean Casey, Detroit’s No. 3 hitter, left early because of an injured left calf and is expected to be out a couple of days.
Game 2 in the best-of-7 series is tonight, with Oakland’s Esteban Loaiza facing Justin Verlander.
Fresh off surprising the New York Yankees in four games in the opening round, the typically free-swinging Tigers worked the count against Zito.
“We thought if we slowed down against him a little bit, it would work a little better,” Inge said.
The A’s ace retired the first eight batters he faced before running into trouble, with 10 of the last 13 Tigers facing him reaching base on the way to a 5-0 lead.
“I started to nitpick instead of coming right after them,” Zito said.
The wild-card Tigers showed off their gloves, too, tying a league championship series record for double plays, last accomplished by the San Francisco Giants on Oct. 10, 1987.
Robertson, who lost Game 1 against the Yankees in his postseason debut, threw five shutout innings to win for the first time in the Coliseum. The 29-year-old lefty struck out the side to escape a fourth-inning jam after Frank Thomas drew a leadoff walk and Jay Payton doubled him to third.
Oakland never trailed in its division-series sweep of the Minnesota Twins. This time, the A’s grounded into double plays to end both the second and third innings to squander early scoring chances, then had another double play in the fifth.
The A’s made mistakes resembling some of their blunders in four straight first-round losses from 2000-03 – not the clean, crisp defense they showed in the division series. They also went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position, leaving them 3 for 34 so far this postseason.
“With three days off, I think guys came in here a little overanxious and tried to do things we don’t normally do,” Thomas said.
Zito didn’t allow a hit until Inge – the No. 9 hitter – lofted a drive that stayed just inside the left-field foul pole with two outs in the third. He lasted just 32/3 innings with seven hits, five runs, three walks and no strikeouts.
Tigers 5, Athletics 1
| Detroit | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. |
| Granderson cf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 |
| Polanco 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 |
| Casey 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 |
| RSantiago ss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| MOrdonez rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 |
| CGuillen ss-1b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 |
| IRodriguez c | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .400 |
| Monroe lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Thames dh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Inge 3b | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Totals | 38 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Oakland | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. |
| Kendall c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .333 |
| Kotsay cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
| Bradley rf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 |
| Thomas dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Payton lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .500 |
| EChavez 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .333 |
| Swisher 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .000 |
| Scutaro ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| DJimenez 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 |
| Totals | 32 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Detroit | 002 | 300 | 000—5 | 11 | 1 |
| Oakland | 000 | 000 | 010—1 | 8 | 1 |
E—CGuillen (1), DJimenez (1). LOB—Detroit 11, Oakland 9. 2B—Granderson (1), Inge (1), Bradley (1), Payton 2 (2). HR—IRodriguez (1), off Zito; Inge (1), off Zito. RBIs—Polanco (1), MOrdonez (1), IRodriguez (1), Inge 2 (2), Payton (1). GIDP—Kotsay 2, Bradley, Scutaro. RLISP—Detroit 6 (Casey 2, MOrdonez, CGuillen 2, Thames); Oakland 6 (Kendall, Bradley, Payton, Scutaro 3). RMU—Granderson, Polanco, Thomas, Payton, DJimenez. DP—Detroit 4 (Polanco, CGuillen and Casey), (CGuillen, Polanco and Casey), (Polanco, CGuillen and Casey), (CGuillen, RSantiago and Rodney).
| Detroit | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Robertson W,1-0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0.00 |
| Rodney | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Zumaya | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 |
| TJones | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Oakland | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Zito L,0-1 | 3 2/3 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 12.27 |
| Gaudin | 1 2/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| JKennedy | 2/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Calero | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Blanton | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.00 |
IR-S—Gaudin 2-0, JKennedy 1-0. T—3:20. A—35,655 (34,077).