Game 24: Jenkins, Rangers Bats Too Much For Tigers, 6-2

Detroit (May 11) - On Mother's Day in Detroit, Fergie Jenkins pitched a game only his mom could love---because nobody in the Motor City appreciated it.

Jenkins fired a complete-game four-hitter, and his Texas Rangers teammates roughed up Mickey Lolich in salvaging the finale of a three-game series, 6-2.

Jenkins struck out 10 and walked only one as he dominated a Tigers offense that had scored 27 runs in its previous four games, all victories.

Lolich (3-3) was knocked out in the seventh inning after failing to retire any of the six batters he faced. It was a 1-1 game before the Rangers put up four runs in the seventh, highlighted by Tom Grieve's two-run homer.

That was more than what Jenkins needed to finish off the Tigers (11-13), who despite the loss are 4-2 on this nine-game homestand.

Jeff Burroughs and Jim Fregosi hit solo homers for the Rangers.

At one point, Jenkins retired 20 Tigers in a row before struggling Nate Colbert, of all people, touched Jenkins for a solo homer in the ninth.

The Tigers actually struck first. Ron LeFlore tripled in the third inning, and Gary Sutherland plated him with a sacrifice fly.

Burroughs answered in the fourth with a moon shot into the upper deck in left field. Lolich managed to go toe-to-toe with Jenkins until the Rangers' uprising in the seventh.

"He's been doing this for years," Lolich said of his counterpart on the mound. "I had one bad inning, but that's baseball."


Jenkins was dominant on Mother's Day


Tigers manager Ralph Houk was reflective afterward.

"It's hard to sweep teams," Houk said. "They had one of the all-time greats on the mound, and you saw what happened."

Indeed. Jenkins, 32, last year's AL Comeback Player of the Year after winning 25 games, was in total control all afternoon. After LeFlore's triple, Jenkins set down the next 20 batters before Colbert's home run.

The Kansas City Royals invade Tiger Stadium for the final three games of the homestand.

Notes: Mickey Stanley, who's been bothered by a sore hamstring since the end of spring training, made a rare start, in left field. Why? "Mickey actually went 4-for-10 off Jenkins last year," Houk reasoned. Stanley had one of the Tigers' four hits...Colbert declined to speak to the media after the game...Aurelio Rodriguez, after a fast start, is in a 3-for-20 funk.

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Tigers record: 11-13 (actual 12-12)
Home: 6-9
Away: 5-4