"Rarely does a baseball player get to execute a victory lap in the middle of a game, but Milton Bradley accomplished something akin to that Tuesday after delivering the biggest hit of a 5-3 Mariners victory at Safeco Field.

Bradley had just driven home Chone Figgins from second base with a one-out single off Justin Verlander to break a 3-3 tie in the eighth. When Tigers manager Jim Leyland pulled Verlander from the game, Bradley ran to the Seattle dugout during the pitching change and "gave everyone a little love," as manager Don Wakamatsu would later put it.

The love was returned by Bradley's ecstatic teammates as he went down the line of players, receiving backslaps and handshakes before the outfielder, playing his sixth game since returning from the restricted list, went back to first base.

"The way I was feeling, I needed to share it with my teammates," Bradley said. "It was a good feeling. I came through."

The good feelings for Bradley, who hit cleanup for the first time since May 4, started immediately. He hit the first pitch he saw from Verlander for a two-run homer in the first inning — Bradley's first homer since April 13.

Chone Figgins had started the winning rally with a one-out double into the left-field corner off Verlander, the Tigers' ace and last year's American League strikeout king. Verlander walked Franklin Gutierrez, whose sixth inning homer had tied the score, to bring up Bradley, who had struck out twice after the early homer."