Damon’s first HR in Detroit uniform comes in bottom of ninth to beat Angels 3-2

Damon’s first Tiger HR beats Angels 3-2

DETROIT — Johnny Damon’s first home run in a Detroit uniform came in the ninth inning Saturday and gave the Tigers a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Damon’s one-out shot came on a 2-0 pitch from Scot Shields (0-1), who came in to start the ninth inning. Shields retired Austin Jackson before Damon homered to right field, making a winner of Ryan Perry (1-1), who retired the final two batters in the top of the ninth.

Brandon Inge’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly gave Detroit a 1-0 lead in the first, but three errors by the Tigers allowed Los Angeles to pull even in the fourth.

After Howie Kendrick’s one-out single, he advanced to second when Miguel Cabrera couldn’t handle Jeremy Bonderman’s pickoff attempt. Bobby Abreu then hit a liner to right that Ryan Raburn dropped while running toward the line. Kendrick stopped at third but came home when Raburn’s throw got by the cutoff man, Cabrera.

Brandon Wood’s RBI single gave the Angels a 2-1 lead in the fifth, but Cabrera made up for his mistakes on defense with his run-scoring single in the fifth that tied the game 2-2.

The Angels’ bid to take the lead in the sixth was thwarted by Damon, who threw out Hideki Matsui at the plate from left field following Juan Rivera’s single.

Bonderman was locked up in a nifty pitching battle with Scott Kazmir for most of the afternoon, allowing two runs — only one earned — on 10 hits over six innings. Kazmir also allowed two runs — and one earned) on five hits over six innings.

Jackson’s leadoff single was his sixth consecutive hit, after going 5 for 5 on Friday night. His streaked ended with a strikeout to end the second.

Note: Magglio Ordonez was Detroit’s DH after leaving Friday night’s game because of abdominal cramps on Friday night. “We got all kind of tests last night and he’s fine,” Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland said. … Los Angeles CF Torii Hunter didn’t play because he was given a rest by manager Mike Scioscia. … After a Michigan law that bans smoking in most work places went into effect Saturday morning, Leyland refrained from smoking when he met with reporters. He has smoked at the ballpark throughout his career. … Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won ice dancing silver medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, threw out the first pitch.