But Belanger, the Baltimore Orioles' shortstop, delivered a two-out single in the seventh inning that scored Ellie Hendricks and broke a 2-2 tie, lifting the O's to a 3-2 win over the Tigers tonight at Memorial Stadium.
It was the third 3-2 loss for the Tigers (5-9) in their past four games.
Once again, the offense let the Bengals down.
"Same old story," said Tigers designated hitter Willie Horton. "Not enough runs to win games."
It was also another fine pitching performance wasted.
Joe Coleman (1-3) pitched all eight innings for the Tigers, surrendering just five hits and three runs, striking out seven. But it wasn't good enough for a win.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning on Ron LeFlore's two-run homer, his first round-tripper of the season.
Orioles starter Mike Cuellar had traffic on the base paths in every inning, but managed to pitch one batter into the eighth before being relieved by Doyle Alexander. Grant Jackson got the save after spelling Alexander with one out in the ninth.
The Tigers threatened Jackson, putting runners on first and second before the lefty got Tom Veryzer on a force out and coaxing a groundball from Aurelio Rodriguez.
Bobby Grich's solo homer in the fifth cut the Tigers' lead to 2-1.
In the seventh, with two out and nobody on, the Orioles rallied.
Brooks Robinson walked, and was plated by Hendricks' double. Hendricks advanced to third on the play when Tigers left fielder Danny Meyer bobbled the baseball in the corner. That set the stage for Belanger's heroics, as he drove a 1-2 slider from Coleman that caught too much of the plate.
"That's baseball," Tigers manager Ralph Houk said. "Anyone can beat you, if you don't make pitches. But Joe pitched well, overall."
********************************************************
Tigers record: 5-9 (actual 9-5)
Home: 2-7
Away: 3-2
No comments:
Post a Comment