Even with former Sox prospect Mike Maroth out for at least two months after undergoing elbow surgery Friday, the Tigers have no shortage of quality pitching. They demonstrated that again last night when Bonderman, a righthander only four months older than Verlander, shut down the Sox on four hits and a couple of runs in a 6-2 win before a full house of 40,872 in Comerica Park, site of a last-out comeback by the Sox the night before that had spoiled a strong outing by the 41-year-old Rogers.
Magglio Ordonez assured Bonderman there would be no such sour ending last night when he broke up a tight game with a three-run home run off Julian Tavarez, who once again reminded one and all of how much Mike Timlin is missed. Tavarez entered after Manny Delcarmen started the eighth and gave up a couple of hits, the second one a one-hop comebacker by Ivan Rodriguez careening off his left heel to put runners on the corners with two outs.
Delcarmen could have continued, but manager Terry Francona, mindful that Ordonez was hitless in his six career at-bats against Tavarez, was going to have Tavarez face the Tigers' cleanup hitter either way.
``Good decision by me," he said, the sarcasm just as fat as the 1-and-0 fastball Tavarez threw to Ordonez, who sent the pitch over the left-center-field wall for his 13th home run of the season.
``The way it's worked so far, if we don't hit it over the fence, we have a tough time winning," Tigers manager Jim Leyland had said on the eve of the series.
That formula worked out nicely for the Tigers last night in a game delayed for 46 minutes at the start by rain, as Marcus Thames (two-out home run in the second) and Carlos Guillen (two-run home run in the fourth, the switch hitter batting righthanded) accounted for all three runs allowed by knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, before Ordonez applied the clinching blow.
``I came out of the bullpen very aggressive," Tavarez said. ``I'm thinking, `I'm going to go with a fastball inside,' but I missed really bad.
``You're not going to get away with many of those, especially against a great hitter. There's a reason they're paying him a lot of money [$75 million over five years]."
