Pratt's Instant Replay: A's 12, Tigers 4

BOX SCORE

DETROIT -- After getting mauled in the first two games of the series the A's had a chance to show the Tigers their teeth in Detroit. They salvaged the series with a 12-4 win, and snapped their three-game losing skid. Oakland rallied for four runs in the sixth and six runs in the ninth to take the game in lopsided fashion. At the PlateAnibal Sanchez held the A's hitless until the third inning when Josh Donaldson reached on a single. He stole second base and ended up scoring on an errant throw by Omar Infante on a fielder's choice. Seth Smith delivered the second run of the game with a solo homer to right field. He hit a change up that was left up in the zone for his 14th home run of the season. Smith has hit 12 of his 14 home runs against right-handed pitching, and he has thrived in the A's platoon role. He finished the game 3 for 4 with four RBI. Smith made a strong impression on the Tigers. He was intentionally walked in the sixth inning as part of an A's four-run rally. Yoenis Cespedes reached on a single and scored on a Brandon Moss double to right field. On the play, third base coach Mike Gallego was waving Cespedes home but he inexplicably stopped at third, then the incoming ball missed the cutoff man scoring Cespedes anyway. Donaldson then smacked a go-ahead RBI single. George Kottaras hit a knuckle line drive to center field that was badly misplayed by Jackson, it was ruled a two RBI triple. Kottaras and Pennington both singled to start the ninth inning. Drew grounded out to first moving the runners over, and Reddick was intentionally walked. That brought Cespedes to the plate with the bases loads and one out. He hit a sacrifice fly to center. The Tigers walked Moss to load the bases for Daric Barton who entered the game as a defensive replacement. He drew a five-pitch walk and didn't swing the bat once, giving the A's a 8-4 lead. Smith hit a base-clearing double breaking the game wide open. Donaldson followed with a double and to score Smith, and make it a 12-4 game. Between Carter and Moss the A's three and four hitters tallied six strikeouts. Starting Pitching ReportTommy Milone got off to a rocky start. The Tigers were able to load the bases in the first inning on an Omar Infante double and back-to-back walks to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. The young lefty locked in and got Delmon Young to ground into an inning-ending double play to escape the jam. The Tigers reached on back-to-back singles to start the second inning. Andy Dirks bunted the runners over, then Gerald Laird drove in the first run of the game on a single. Austin Jackson hit a sacrifice fly to left field to give the Tigers their second run. After a walk to Infante, Milone got Cabrera to fly out to right field to end the inning. The A's scored a run in the third inning and Milone responded with two shutdown innings. He couldn't get a shutdown inning after they scored again in the fifth. The Tigers scored when Cabrera reached on a single and Fielder hit a double to right-center that was bobbled by Reddick after he fielded the ball. Milone was removed from the game two batters later with runners on the corners. He was at 94 pitches. Milone allowed nine hits, three walks and three earned runs. The Tigers ran up his pitch count. Bullpen ReportPat Neshek relieved Milone in the fifth inning and induced a pop out to end the inning with two runners on. He only faced one batter. Jerry Blevins started the sixth inning but gave up a solo homer to Andy Dirks. He got Laird to fly out and was then removed in favor of Ryan Cook who finished the inning in nine pitches. Cook struck out Cabrera to start the seventh inning, got Fielder to ground out, and struck out Young to end the inning. Cook is looking like he's found his All-Star form. He hasn't allowed a run in 14 of his last 15 outings. Sean Doolittle pitching the eighth inning. Evan Scribner pitched a scoreless ninth inning with an eight run lead. AttendanceThe Tigers announced an attendance of 34,635. Up NextThe A's head to New York to take on the Yankees for a three-game series. Jarrod Parker (11-8, 3.51 ERA) takes on CC Sabathia (13-6, 3.63 ERA) in the series opener on Friday. Saturday's game will feature a match up of Travis Blackley (5-3, 3.36 ERA) vs. Ivan Nova (12-7, 4.85 ERA). On Sunday A.J. Griffin (6-1, 2.45 ERA) will be opposed by Hiroki Kuroda (14-10, 3.26 ERA).