Tigers come off break with win

The Tigers came out of the gates after the all-star break with a 6-5 win over the Orioles tonight. It was a seesaw affair that saw the Tigers go ahead for good when Brandon Inge belted a two run homer in the sixth inning making it 5-4 at the time. Most of the Tigers runs came on homers tonight. Earlier, the slumping Gary Sheffield clubbed a two run shot in the second inning and Marcus Thames capped the scoring with a solo blast in the 7th. Sheffield just missed another homer later in the game when Jay Payton made a leaping catch at the wall. Edgar Renteria, another struggling Tiger, had two hits on the tonight.

Kenny Rogers was not sharp tonight allowing 4 runs on 11 hits in 6 innings but the bullpen bailed him out. Bobby Seay, Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya combined for two scoreless innings leading up to Todd Jones' grand adventure in the ninth. Jones loaded the bases with one out, tied his shoe, allowed a sacrifice fly to deep center field and then got the final batter to ground out to third. Even the last out was not easy though as Inge nearly threw the ball away but Cabrera made a sweeping tag of Kevin Millar for the final out. Despite the final play, it was a great night for Inge who was making brilliant plays all night long. He was playing in place of Carlos Guillen who was with his wife who needed surgery due to complications from giving birth last week.

The win left the Tigers 6 1/2 games in back of the first place White Sox. They will play the Orioles again tomorrow night with Armando Galarraga facing Jeremy Guthrie.