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Thursday, Sep. 7 7:05pm ET
Belcher wins in first start since July 2 | |||||
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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- Tim Belcher hated Tiger Stadium, but he loves Comerica Park. Belcher, in his first start since July 2, pitched six innings and helped the Anaheim Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 6-4 Thursday night. "It's 180 degrees different," said Belcher, referring to Detroit's old and new stadiums. "I probably would've given up four home runs over there tonight." Belcher, who pitched for Detroit in 1994 and led the AL with 15 losses, gave up three runs and seven hits. Troy Glaus, Scott Spiezio and Tim Salmon homered and Bengie Molina went 4-for-4 to lead the Angels. "I didn't do a thing in this series, but we still won two games because we have a lot of heroes on this team," Mo Vaughn said. "It's nice to go back home after a couple of wins like this." The Angels concluded their seven-game road trip with two wins, after losing their previous six games. The Tigers lost back-to-back games for the first time since Aug. 6-7. Anaheim is six games behind Seattle in the AL West and 6½ games behind Cleveland in the wild card race. The Tigers are six games behind the Indians. Belcher (3-2) won the matchup of pitchers coming off the disabled list. He benefited from the size of Comerica -- Bobby Higginson hit a double off the wall in right-center that traveled about 385 feet and Tony Clark hit a 395-foot flyout in the fourth. "I felt pretty good and when I didn't feel so good, it felt good to be in Comerica Park," said Belcher, who underwent surgery in December. "I got away with a couple mistakes, but when you've got a nice pitcher's yard like this, the main objective is just to throw strikes and to have some damage control." Dave Mlicki, who had been on the disabled list with a sinus infection, made his first start since July 22. Mlicki (4-11) gave up five runs on five hits in just three innings. Shigetoshi Hasegawa pitched the final two innings to earn his ninth save. "I felt like I had great stuff tonight," Mlicki said. "Unfortunately, we don't have anything to show for it. I made a couple of bad pitches. But it seemed like when I made a mistake, they hit it a long way. They live and die by the long ball. That's the kind of club they are." Glaus gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead in the second with his 41st homer, a 422-foot drive to left field. He is tied with Frank Thomas for the American League home run lead. The Tigers tied it in the home half on Damion Easley's RBI single after Clark doubled and Deivi Cruz singled. The Angels went ahead 2-1 in the third when Darin Erstad's sacrifice fly scored Molina, who hit a leadoff double. They took a 3-1 lead on Scott Spiezio's 15th homer to right field. Willie Blair relieved Mlicki, who loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth. Blair forced Adam Kennedy into a home-to-first double play. Molina, the second batter Mlicki faced, hit a two-run single to right. Detroit cut its deficit to 5-3 in the fifth. Brad Ausmus hit a leadoff single and scored from first when Wendell Magee hit a double to left-center. Billy McMillon's sacrifice fly scored Magee. Magee hit his sixth homer to make it 5-4 in the seventh. Salmon gave the Angels a 6-4 cushion in the eighth with his 33rd home run. "The story at this point is we just couldn't generate any offense," Detroit manager Phil Garner said. "We just never got anything going. It never looked like we had any momentum tonight. This is just a damn rotten time for this to happen." Game notesThe Angels hadn't homered in their past three games. ... Vaughn was 2-for-16 with nine strikeouts in the series. ... Glaus committed his 28th error when he dropped McMillon's foul popup in the eighth. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Anaheim Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 11 Minnesota 6
Anaheim 6
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