Major League Baseball

Halos' Palmer beats Tigers for 1st win in majors

Published Apr. 24, 2009 7:04 a.m. ET

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Matt Palmer pitched into the seventh inning to earn his first major league victory, Torii Hunter hit a go-ahead home run and the Los Angeles Angels survived another shaky outing by the bullpen to beat the Detroit Tigers 10-5 on Thursday night.

Palmer (1-0) threw 100 pitches in six-plus innings in his fourth big league start. He was charged with five runs - four earned - and six hits, walking three and striking out one. After giving up a leadoff homer to Brandon Inge in the second, the 30-year-old right-hander allowed two more singles in the inning before retiring his next 12 batters.

The Tigers loaded the bases with none out in the seventh. Palmer walked his last two batters after a two-base throwing error by third baseman Chone Figgins on Josh Anderson's slow-hit grounder. Rookie Daniel Davidson came on to face Curtis Granderson and walked in a run, cutting the Angels' lead to 6-3.

Two more runs scored on a single by Placido Polanco off Jason Bulger, who then retired Magglio Ordonez on a foul pop and got Miguel Cabrera to ground into an inning-ending double play - started by Figgins.

The Angels broke the game open with four runs in the eighth against reliever Eddie Bonine, who was pitching for the first time in 10 days.

Palmer, who made his first three big league starts last season for San Francisco, was the only pitcher the Angels had at Triple-A Salt Lake with major league experience to start the finale of this three-game series. The Angels have gone through a 2 1/2 week stretch in which their already depleted pitching staff was hurt even further because of the death of rookie Nick Adenhart and injuries to Dustin Moseley and Darren Oliver.

Edwin Jackson (1-1) gave up six runs - three earned - and eight hits in five-plus innings after pitching 7 2-3 scoreless innings in Saturday's victory over Seattle. The right-hander squandered a 2-0 lead in the fourth by walking Gary Matthews Jr. and No. 9 hitter Jeff Mathis with the bases loaded.

Hunter came up with one out in the fifth, and Jackson tried to get ahead of him with a 96-mph fastball. Hunter drove it to right-center for his sixth homer of the season and 800th RBI of his career. The Angels got three more in the sixth with the help of Inge's throwing error.

Notes

RHP Rick Porcello, Friday night's scheduled starter for the Tigers, flew to Kansas City ahead of the team because his teammates won't get in until the early morning hours. "It's kind of mind-boggling to me that we didn't play an afternoon game today," manager Jim Leyland said. "I just can't buy that. That makes no sense at all to have any major league get in at 6, 7 o'clock in the morning to play a game that same night. I mean, I certainly am aware of the financial part of the business where you want everybody to get as much as they can, obviously. But at the same time, it doesn't make sense to me." ... The Angels have to come up with yet another starting pitcher for Saturday's game against Seattle. Whoever it is will be the eighth different starter for the Angels this season - one more than all of last season.

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