Thomas lifts Tigers to win over Cardinals
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rookie Clete Thomas drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning to help the Detroit Tigers spoil the return of St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols in the Tigers' 3-2 home win on Thursday.
Thomas, playing in only the 26th game of his career, got St. Louis reliever Mike Parisi to walk him with two outs, forcing in Tigers centerfielder Curtis Granderson for the winning run.
"He'd been shaky on the strike zone all day, and lucky enough he threw it away and they called it a ball," Thomas told reporters.
"I usually go up there looking for a good pitch to hit and he didn't throw me anything good."
Thomas was 1-for-3 with two RBIs on the day and Granderson finished with four hits and two runs.
The finish overshadowed the performance of Pujols, who was returning to the Cardinals (45-35) after missing 13 games with a calf injury. Pujols was 4-for-4 and produced a go-ahead RBI single in the top of the ninth inning which made it 2-1.
Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield sent the game into extra innings with his ninth-inning solo home run off of Cardinals' pitcher Ryan Franklin.
"In that situation, I was just looking for a ball in the middle of the plate," Sheffield said. "He came in, so I knew he was going to go away, out over the plate with the next pitch."
Detroit's Bobby Seay (1-1) shut down St. Louis in the top of the 10th and picked up the victory.
Nate Robinson started for the Tigers, and pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing just one run despite surrendering 11 hits.
Detroit second baseman Placido Polanco was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing strikes.
(Reporting by Jahmal Corner, Editing by Martin Petty)
