Max Scherzer wasn’t at his best on Saturday, but he didn’t need to be. The Tigers offense gave him all the help he needed.
A five-run second inning staked the Baltimore Orioles to a 5-0 lead, but Detroit slowly chipped away and wrested the lead for good on Ryan Raburn’s sixth inning RBI single in a 6-5 comeback win.
Scherzer (12-7) gave up a two-run home run to Vladimir Guerrero and a three-run shot to Blake Davis in the second, but shut down the O’s offense for the rest of the night. He ended the night with a surprisingly decent stat line: seven innings pitched, giving up five runs — four earned — while striking out ten batters.
Detroit got a run in the fourth inning on a sac fly by Miguel Cabrera, but turned things around for good in the sixth. Cabrera belted a two-run homer with Magglio Ordonez aboard, and then Alex Avila drilled a ground-rule double to the right-center gap that took one hop over the wall and plated Victor Martinez. Raburn then knocked in two runs with his hit to snare the lead.
Most impressively, they did all the damage with two outs.
Phil Coke continued his bounce-back, pitching a perfect eighth inning for Detroit, handing the ball to Jose Valverde in the ninth. Valverde gave up a hit but worked around it for his 34th save.