Giants 15, Tigers 3
DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers have been getting roughed up lately, irritating manager Jim Leyland.
Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford homered in a five-run first inning, Miguel Tejada had a grand slam in a five-run third after a long rain delay and the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 15-3 Sunday morning.
"It was pretty ugly," Leyland said.
The game was delayed by a thunderstorm in the third inning for 2 hours, 36 minutes, and it ended after midnight.
The Tigers, losers of four of five, have given up at least 14 runs three times during the slump.
Three of our last five starting performances haven't been good," Leyland said. "Really not acceptable."
Max Scherzer (9-4) allowed nine runs -- six earned -- on six hits and three walks over two-plus innings.
They hope only a game was lost.
Catcher Victor Martinez left in the third inning with a bruised right shoulder, getting hit by a foul tip, and is day to day.
"I wasn't going to take a chance, I had to get him out of there," Leyland said. "He got smoked pretty good."
Martinez was replaced by emergency catcher Don Kelly, who was used as an emergency pitcher earlier in the week and has now played every position in his career.
"There may be somebody more talented," Leyland said, getting choked up. "But for a 25th player, I wouldn't rather have anybody in baseball than Donny Kelly."
Barry Zito (2-1) pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and a walk. He pitched on short rest and stayed in the game despite the long delay, going about 3 hours between pitches in the second and third innings. Zito won Tuesday at Arizona in his first start after being on the disabled list with a sprained right foot.
The NL-West leading Giants have won nine of their last 11 games.
Scherzer started the game by striking out Aaron Rowand, then struggled.
Emmanuel Burriss followed with a single and Sandoval smacked the first pitch he saw into the left-field seats, extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games. Second baseman Ryan Raburn didn't help Scherzer out, making a fielding error on Aubrey Huff's grounder on what should've been the second out of the inning. Nate Schierholtz hit a two-out infield single, then Crawford hit the next pitch over the right-field fence.
The long delay didn't slow down San Francisco, which surpassed its previous season high of 13 runs
After Brayan Villarreal walked Crawford, who was batting when rain stopped the game, Tejada hit the next pitch to left for his 12th career grand slam to put the Giants ahead 10-0.
Huff hit a two-run single in the fifth, giving the Giants a 12-run lead. Eli Whiteside hit a two-run double in a three-run sixth, padding the lead to 15-0.
The Giants made plays in the field, too, turning three double plays in the first four innings with Tejada starting two of them with slick stops in the hole.
Detroit's Jhonny Peralta and Brennan Boesch hit back-to-back homers in the seventh off Guillermo Mota, making it 15-2 and giving the sparse crowd something to cheer about. Mota earned his first career save because he pitched the final three innings.
Raburn hit an RBI single in the ninth.
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