DETROIT – Magglio Ordonez homered and Justin Verlander won for the first time in four weeks as the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-2 on Saturday night.

Verlander (12-4) hadn’t won since July 15, and gave the Tigers just their second win from a starter in 24 games. He allowed two runs and seven hits with three walks in six-plus innings. Four relievers finished, with Todd Jones pitching a perfect ninth for his 31st save in 36 tries.

Detroit had lost three straight and 12 of 15.

Fellow All-Star Dan Haren (13-4) lost for the first time in six starts, giving up three runs and nine hits with a walk in 6 1-3 innings. Haren’s last road loss was on April 7, at the Los Angeles Angels.

Marcus Thames gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead with a first-inning homer, his 13th, but Oakland went ahead with single runs in the third and fifth.

In the third, Verlander walked Travis Buck and Shannon Stewart with one out. After Nick Swisher popped out, Jack Cust tied the game with an RBI single.

Kurt Suzuki led off the fifth with a double, took third on Buck’s infield single and scored on a bloop single by Stewart.

Brandon Inge, who had missed the previous two games because of the birth of his child, made a spectacular mental mistake in the sixth inning. With two out and runner on second, Inge fielded Kurt Suzuki’s routine grounder and stepped on third, thinking there was a force play.

Luckily for Inge, Verlander retired the next batter to escape the inning without damage.

Ordonez then gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead with a two-run homer off Haren in the bottom of the inning.

Omar Infante added a sacrifice fly and Inge followed with a run-scoring triple in the eighth to give Detroit a three-run lead.

Stewart and Swisher started the Oakland seventh with singles, but Bobby Seay came in to strike out Jack Cust, and Aquilino Lopez retired Mark Ellis and Marco Scutaro to end the inning.

Santiago Casilla matched the feat in the bottom of the inning, replacing Haren and getting Gary Sheffield and Ordonez with two runners on.

NOTES: 2B Placido Polanco, who needs one errorless game to tie Luis Castillo’s major-league record of 143 straight at second base, was a late scratch because of a sore thumb. … Lopez and Eulogio De La Cruz were called up from Triple-A Toledo before the game to replace Jordan Tata and Macay McBride, who gave up a combined 11 runs in Friday’s 16-10 loss to Oakland. … Mike Piazza, who has homered in 40 major league stadiums, made his Comerica Park debut Saturday, striking out in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter.

AP-ES-08-11-07 2207EDT