Sheffield and Ordonez blast Detroit past Texas

Sep 13, 2007, 2:14 GMT

Detroit, MI - Gary Sheffield belted a two-run home run in the first inning and Magglio Ordonez a three-run shot in the sixth, and the Detroit Tigers held their ground in the AL wild card race with a 5-1 rout of the Texas Rangers in the third of a four-game series at Comerica Park.

Detroit is still four games behind wild-card leader New York, which downed Toronto 4-1 on Wednesday; and 5 1/2 behind the Cleveland Indians, who beat Chicago 7-4 on Wednesday, in the AL Central. Texas is just one game back of the Oakland Athletics for third place in the AL West after having spent most of the season in the cellar.

'It's going to still boil down to pitching, that's what always makes the final decision for you,' Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. 'Whoever pitches the best is going to end up winning. Right now the Yankees are pitching real good and scoring some runs. Cleveland, the twosome they got back to back, they've been pitching real good and that's when they separated from the pack. If we can continue to get some performances like this, we've got a shot. It's a longshot, there's no question about it.'

Carlos Guillen finished 2-for-4 for Detroit, which has won two straight after having split a day/night doubleheader with the Rangers on Tuesday. On a four- start winning streak during which he has surrendered only three runs, Justin Verlander (17-5) gave up one run on seven hits with a walk and seven strikeouts over seven innings for Detroit.

David Murphy went 3-for-4 and drove in the lone run for the Rangers, whose loss in the second game stopped a season-high six-game winning streak but have still won 13 of their last 17 games. Michael Young went 2-for-3 and scored the run. Edinson Volquez (2-1) allowed five runs on seven hits with four walks and a career-high six strikeouts over six innings for Texas.

The Tigers put up two quick runs in the first when Placido Polanco doubled and scored on Sheffield's two-run shot to left field on a 2-0 pitch, for the slugger's 25th homer of the season.

Texas got runners to the corners in the fourth, but Gerald Laird struck out swinging to leave them.

Texas scored its lone run in the sixth, as Young hit a ground-rule double, moved up a base on Marlon Byrd's single, and scored on a Murphy base hit.

The Tigers plated three insurance runs in the sixth. After lead-off walks to Polanco and Sheffield, a coaching visit to the mound failed to calm down Volquez, who two pitches later surrendered a three-run blast to left-center field by Ordonez.

'Sheffield and Ordonez have gotten many pitchers and today, they added him (Volquez) to their book,' Texas manager Ron Washington said. 'I'm not worried about that.'

Game Notes

Sheffield scored his 100th and 101st runs, and, with Ordonez (109) and Granderson (113), Detroit now has three players with more than 100 runs in a season for the first time since 1961 when Rocky Colavito, Norm Cash and Al Kaline accomplished the feat... The Tigers hold a 5-4 edge over the Rangers this season after the two teams split 10 meetings a year ago. Since the start of the 2004 campaign, Detroit holds a slight 18-16 edge in the series.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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