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Tuesday, Jun. 13 7:05pm ET
Higginson keys Detroit's 16-3 rout | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- The longer he feels good, the better Bobby Higginson seems to play. Higginson highlighted a rare Detroit power surge with a pair of three-run homers and seven RBIs as the Tigers bombed the Toronto Blue Jays 16-3 Tuesday night. "It's like night and day," said Higginson, limited to just 107 games by an injury to his right big toe that finally required surgery last season. "I'm a lot more comfortable. I'm having a lot more fun. It's just really nice not to feel hurt." Higginson has done this before. He also had seven RBIs on June 30, 1997, against the New York Mets. He hit three homers in that game. "I might have had better efforts, but none ever felt better than this," Higginson said. Higginson, who hit just .239 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs last season, has been Detroit's best hitter lately. In five games he has nine hits in 19 at-bats with three homers and 10 RBIs. His 4-for-4 performance before being replaced in the fifth raised Higginson's average 15 points to .269. "This was kind of Higgy's night," Detroit manager Phil Garner said. "I mean, he drove in seven runs!" Juan Gonzalez and Brad Ausmus also homered for the Tigers, whose 59 homers rank them next to last in the AL. Ausmus was 4-for-5 with two RBIs. "I don't want to be like a drunken sailor and say this is the end of our problems," Garner said. "But I'm sure going to enjoy this for a while." Tony Batista had a two-run homer, his 15th, for Toronto. Willie Blair (3-1), whose longest outing this season was 4 2-3 innings in relief, gave up three runs and six hits over seven innings in his second start. Blair, who pitched one perfect inning of relief against St. Louis on Sunday, walked one and struck out two. Clayton Andrews (1-2), who notched his first major league win at Detroit on May 28 with four innings of relief in a 12-7 Toronto triumph, wasn't nearly so effective in his second career start. Andrews, who lasted just 1 1-3 innings, yielded six runs on eight hits. "They were just hitting everything I threw up there," Andrews said. "If you get the ball up, and they get good contact, it's going to go out." And it did. Every starter had a hit in the Tigers' 21-hit attack that saw them send nine men to the plate in the first and fourth. The Tigers ripped Andrews for five runs in the first, four before he retired a batter. Andrews hurt his own cause by walking leadoff batter Damion Easley. Ausmus singled and Higginson followed with his eighth homer, giving Detroit a 3-0 lead. On the next pitch, Gonzalez made it 4-0 with his 10th homer, a powerful shot to right-center that hit beneath Hal Newhouser's name on the tan brick wall behind the fans and caromed back onto the field. Dean Palmer followed with a long double to left-center and scored the inning's fifth run on Shane Halter's one-out RBI single. Ausmus hit a one-out homer in the second, his fourth, and when Higginson followed with a single, Darwin Cubillan relieved Andrews. "You can't expect to go out and deal every time, just because you did the time before," Andrews said. "I just didn't throw quality pitches." Easley had a two-run double, and Higginson another three-run homer, this time off Cubillan, as the Tigers made it 11-0 in the fourth. Alex Gonzalez hit an RBI double in Toronto's fifth. But the Tigers made it 15-1 with four more runs in the fifth, including an RBI single by Higginson, who received a standing ovation from the crowd announced at 23,314 when he was lifted for Rich Becker after reaching first. Batista's homer made it 15-3 in the seventh. Game notesDetroit CF Juan Encarnacion made a belly-first sliding catch to rob Shannon Stewart of a hit leading off the game. ... The game was held up just briefly with one out in the first while Toronto C Alberto Castillo caught up with and snagged a baby bird that was wandering between the plate and the mound. The bird was later taken to the Huron Valley Bird Rescue Center. ... Josh Phelps made his major league debut, taking over at catcher in the sixth for Toronto. ... Batista's homer extended the Blue Jays' home run streak to 13 games, one shy of the club record. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS Chi. White Sox 4 Cleveland 3
Detroit 16
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