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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- Jose Mercedes has pitched well everywhere lately,
especially in his first outing in Comerica Park.
Mercedes pitched into the eighth inning to win his fourth
straight decision as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers
5-2 Wednesday night.
Mercedes (7-4) limited the Tigers to two runs on six hits with
six strikeouts and a walk in seven-plus innings.
"Here you definitely will pitch more confidently," Mercedes
said. "I'm going to go right after guys here."
Mercedes threw 64 strikes in 90 pitches. His fastball topped out
at 93 mph, but his off-speed pitches were just as effective
anywhere in the count.
"He was outstanding," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "He
had a nice breaking ball he threw for strikes early in the count
and he had an aggressive fastball.
"He's been aggressive in the strike zone, but not in the middle
of the plate. The trick to pitching is throw strikes on the corners
of the plate, and Jose's been doing that."
Mercedes is 6-2 as a starter, the only Baltimore starter with a
winning record. He's also made 16 relief appearances, but has been
in the rotation since Scott Erickson went on the disabled list July
26.
"I just come to the ballpark and try to do my best every time I
go," Mercedes said. "Whatever they want me to do, I'm happy. I'm
focused on throwing the ball."
Rookie Ryan Kohlmeier got the last three outs for his second
career save.
Willie Blair (8-3) had a three-game winning streak snapped after
he allowed five runs on 10 hits in seven-plus innings.
"I made a couple of mistakes, but I don't think we played well
defensively, I don't think offensively we were doing a very good
job," Blair said. " We're not having a good approach at the
plate. Defensively, maybe we're not playing as hard as we should
and not making good decisions."
Jose Macias homered for the Tigers, who have lost five of six to
Baltimore and are 2-4 -- averaging less than three runs a game --
with one game left in their homestand.
"Our offense has been very weak," Tigers manager Phil Garner
said. "We're not getting 'em on and we're certainly not getting
'em in. Macias provided 50 percent of our offense, and that guy
hasn't hardly played at all."
Detroit is 5-8 in its last two homestands against Kansas City,
Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Baltimore -- all with worse records than
the Tigers. Between the homestands, the Tigers were 4-3 on a trip
to Texas and Anaheim.
"It's frustrating because we were playing so well right before
this homestand," Blair said. "For whatever reason, we got away
from that."
Baltimore's retooled offense has taken advantage of Comerica
Park's dimensions.
Aggressive baserunning led directly to two runs, and the Orioles
had two doubles and two triples.
"We've got a lot more ways to score than we did a month ago,"
Hargrove said. "We'll still take the big inning, I'll still take
home runs, but we're going to score with the hit-and-run and taking
the extra base and that kind of thing."
The Orioles took a 5-1 lead with a three-run sixth, on
consecutive run-scoring singles from Delino DeShields and Albert
Belle and a bloop RBI double from Brook Fordyce, who was 3-for-4.
Both singles were to left field with runners on second. Both
Brady Anderson and DeShields challenged left fielder Bobby
Higginson's strong arm and beat his throws home.
"I wouldn't want to bet my paycheck testing Higginson's arm all
the time, but it worked tonight," Hargrove said.
Ryan Minor doubled and scored on Luis Matos' triple up the
right-field gap before Anderson's sacrifice fly gave the Orioles a
2-1 lead in the third.
Detroit led 1-0 after an inning as Damion Easley scored from
second when shortstop Melvin Mora couldn't handle Juan Gonzalez's
hard smash for an error.
Macias hit a solo homer, his second, in the seventh.
Game notes
Belle was 0-for-10 in the series before his single in the
sixth. He's batting .188 (12-for-64) over 16 games. ... Easley has
batted leadoff in Detroit's last four games and reached safely in
the first inning every time. ... Higginson was 0-for-4 with three
strikeouts Wednesday and is just 4-for-23 (.174) on the homestand.
... Kohlmeier, recalled from Triple-A Rochester on July 28, earned
saves in both Orioles wins this series.
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