Tigers drop to the Athletics 8-6

The American League Central Division leaders Detroit Tigers dropped a hard fought contest to the Oakland Athletics 8-6 last night.  The Oakland team who is in a fight to make the playoffs themselves in the A.L. West keep scoring runs all night long.  Saginaw's Curt Young the longtime pitching coach for the Athletics made several trips to the mound in talking to his pitchers.  They did just enough to keep the Tigers at bay all night long.  The Tigers would leave 8 men on base in the last three innings with several chances to pull ahead and win the game. 

MVP leader Miguel Cabrera still nursing a sore body would again drill a 2 run Home Run to right field to give the Tigers a brief lead.  One can clearly see that he is not 100% yet.  However the Tigers need his hot bat in the line-up.  Anibal Sanchez did not have one of his best nights as a Tiger.  He struggled in the first inning throwing 29 pitches and gave up 2 runs.  He made it through 5 innings of work and would leave the game tied. 

Oakland would keep pecking away at the Tiger pitchers all night long getting runs 6 different innings.  Detroit would have the bases loaded in both the 7th and 8th innings only to leave 3 men on base.  Again in the bottom of the 9th inning the stage was set for another Tiger comeback only to fall short. 

Detroit would pound out 3 home runs and saw their DH Victor Martinez's bat really heat up with 4 hits on the night.  Detroit now has a 5 1/2 game lead over the Cleveland Indians who were idle on Monday night.  Detroit will finish with the A's in 3 more contests before the Indians come to town over the Labor Day weekend.