The day began with the Tigers acquring Delmon Young for two minor leaguers.
He rode the team bus to Comerica with his former Twins teammates, grabbed his equipment bags, and crossed over to the Tigers clubhouse.
In his first AB wearing the Olde English "D," he homered, his fifth of the season. And he a made a nice running catch of Trevor Plouffe's liner in the fifth, to give Tigers fans a second reason to like Young.
Magglio Ordonez, who never did get untracked after last season's ankle injury, is the odd man out. The 15 year veteran with 293 homers and a lifetime .308 average will sit more than he plays, in what is now very likely his last major league season.
So Criswell was right, for a change.
Austin Jackson threw out Ben Revere trying to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park homer. Alex Avila ended up a home run short of the cycle. Ryan Raburn homered, but dropped a double play grounder that cost the Tigers two unearned runs, and butchered a second chance at two that inning.
The night, however, belonged to another veteran slugger and future Hall Of Famer, Jim Thome.
In the sixth, he homered -- number 599 -- off Rick Porcello with Jason Kubel on. Next inning, with Plouffe and Justin Morneau on and Daniel Schlereth pitching, he lined number 600 into the Twins' bullpen.
Thirty-six thousand-plus Tigers fans stood and applauded, even though the homer gave the Twins a 9-5 lead.
How appropriate, that, after wearing out Tigers pitching in 17 full American League seasons, he should hit his 600th home run against them.
Throw out Barry Earring and Sammy Steroid's chemically-enhanced homer totals, and Jim Thome would be sixth on the all-time list
With the Indians off, the Tigers' lead over them is now two games.
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