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DET@SEA: Peralta mashes a three-run triple to center

SEATTLE -- The Tigers' offense will come around, manager Jim Leyland said again on Monday afternoon. The track records of Detroit's veteran hitters, he says, strongly suggest it, and he looked forward to seeing it happen.

"If we don't hit, I'll be picking with the chickens," Leyland said. "But we'll hit."

He wasn't crowing Monday night over the Tigers' six-run seventh inning to pull out an 8-3 win over the Mariners. One game, Leyland said, doesn't mean their issues are over, notably when some wild pitches accounted for a couple runs. But he wasn't making any plans to clean chicken coops, either.

"I'm not one of those guys that, all of a sudden you do good, so everybody was different," Leyland said. "No, I think we got some pitches and we hit them. We did swing at strikes a little better tonight. I'm not one of those guys that, all of a sudden you get a few hitters, and now you're rah-rah and everything was good tonight. We did fine.

"But like I said, I think we've got something to look forward to, because we've got a track record of hitting. We haven't done much of it to this point, but I'm looking forward to it, because if the guys live up to their track records, we're going to hit at some point."

It took them a while to do it Monday, but they hit. Even if they had pitches to hit, especially with so many three-ball counts, doing something with those pitches was another matter, one they have struggled to handle more than once this season.

They handled it Monday. Miguel Cabrera celebrated his 28th birthday with two singles, three runs scored and a big RBI to help fuel the six-run seventh inning. Brennan Boesch continued his hot start against lefties with two big hits against Seattle southpaw Jason Vargas, including a two-out, sixth-inning double that put Cabrera in position to score the tying run.

Peralta's bases-clearing triple capped the surge in the seventh. He entered the day 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, then nearly doubled his RBI total on one swing.

"We got some big hits," Leyland said. "It took us a while, but we got them."

The Tigers didn't want to act like it was a big deal to get them. But there was sure a sense they needed this.

"It was nice," Boesch said. "It allows us to relax a little bit in the dugout after that, but you never quit playing. You keep playing hard until the game's over, but a big inning is nice for the team to have some confidence that we can string some runs together, especially late in the game."

Boesch's double sent Cabrera rumbling around third base to score from first once the ball bounced through left fielder Milton Bradley's legs in the left-field corner. The error denied Boesch an RBI, but not the big hit itself.

"You can't really try to pull [the ball against] lefties for the most part. That's just not a good approach," said Boesch, now 4-for-12 off lefties this year. "You're better off not necessarily trying to go to the opposite field, but you just have to stay on the ball. A lot of times when you stay on the ball, you hit the ball the other way. I don't aim anywhere. I just make sure I stay on the baseball."

When Leyland talks about track records, he isn't talking about Boesch, who is looking back on the .340 average he had in the first half of last season more than what happened after. Boesch has shown he can hit in the big leagues.

Boesch's hit left Vargas with a no-decision for his six quality innings, but the relievers who followed had a far worse fate against the middle of Detroit's lineup.

"That seventh inning got ugly there," said Seattle manager Eric Wedge. "[Josh] Lueke and [Chris] Ray just didn't have it today. They got behind, had to come in and that's where it got away from us."

Once Brandon Inge singled, advanced on a well-placed Austin Jackson bunt and scored on a wild pitch from Lueke (1-1) to pull the Tigers ahead in the seventh, the runs piled up from there. Six consecutive batters reached base safely, capped by Peralta's drive to the center-field fence, and five of them scored. All reached three-ball counts.

That included Cabrera, who surprisingly saw a 3-0 pitch over the plate and lined it back through the middle for an RBI single and a 4-2 lead.

"Good birthday," Cabrera said. "We got a win. Hopefully we can win the series here and get ready to get home."

It was the Tigers' second eight-run game in four days, but it was also just their second since they left the season-opening series at Yankee Stadium.

Scherzer (3-0) overcame four walks to remain unbeaten through four starts, chipping in his third straight outing of six innings and two runs or fewer.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.