Football
Associated Press 18y

Guillen hits for cycle in Tigers win

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Carlos Guillen can thank teammate
Dmitri Young for half of his special game.

Guillen became the 10th Detroit player to hit for the cycle,
leading the Tigers past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10-4 on Tuesday
night.

The Tigers shortstop, who doesn't always use his own bats, got
an RBIs triple in the second and a fourth-inning solo homer using
one of Young's bats. After lining out to right in the fourth with
Magglio Ordonez's bat, Guillen used his own lumber for a
sixth-inning single and the history-making double in the eighth.

"Inside, I felt pretty good," Guillen said. "I was looking
for the double. As soon as I hit the ball, I tried to run hard. If
I don't run hard my first at-bat, I don't get the triple. If I
don't run hard my last at-bat, I don't get the double."

Guillen completed the double sliding into second ahead of a
throw by center fielder Damon Hollins.

"That was awesome," Tigers first baseman Sean Casey said. "I
felt like a fan. If he didn't go for second, I was going to go out
and tackle him."

Most of the 13,808 fans at Tropicana Field gave Guillen a
standing ovation. It was the first cycle allowed by the Devil Rays.

"That was pretty impressive," said Tigers rookie pitcher
Justin Verlander, who allowed three runs and eight hits over five
innings to become the major league's first 14-game winner. "It was
fun to watch."

The last two Tigers to accomplish the feat were Damion Easley in
2001 and Travis Fryman in 1993. It was Detroit's first road cycle
since George Kell did it on June 2, 1950, at Philadelphia.

"That's always a nice thing ... something special for a player
to put in the memory and something that not a lot of guys have
done," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said.

Guillen's cycle was the 221st in the majors, and 109th in the
American League since 1900. It was the first in the AL since Texas'
Mark Teixeira did it against Cleveland on Aug. 17, 2004.

Jose Reyes of the New York Mets (June 21) and Houston's Luke
Scott (July 28) hit for the cycle in the National League this year.

Guillen is hitting .306 with 13 homers and 64 RBIss in 102 games
this season. He was undecided on what bat to use Wednesday.

"Let's see how I feel tomorrow," he said.

Guillen's performance helped the AL Central-leading Tigers
(71-35) matched their victory total from last season. The level of
team success has exceeded Leyland's expectations from spring
training.

"I thought we'd be good," Leyland said. "I thought we'd make
considerable improvement. I never thought we'd be exactly in this
position."

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