DETROIT ? Even the ever-optimistic Alan Trammell was close to giving up on his Detroit Tigers.

“I was actually going to take a couple of guys out,” Trammell acknowledged.

Detroit’s manager decided otherwise, and the Tigers staved off a historic defeat with a startling rally, coming from eight runs down to beat Minnesota, 9-8, on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday night.

The Tigers were in danger of matching the modern major-league record of 120 losses set by the expansion 1962 New York Mets (40-120) before pulling off their biggest comeback in 38 years.

Detroit (42-119) now will try to avoid tying the post-1900 record for losses when it finishes the season today against the Twins. Mike Maroth, 8-21 and the first pitcher to lose 20 games in nearly a quarter-century, will start for the Tigers against Kyle Lohse.

“We’re not the worst team in baseball, no matter what,” Carlos Pena said. “We’re going to have a better winning percentage than the Mets, and we won’t beat their record. You’ve got to compare apples with apples, not apples with oranges, OK? They played 160 games and we’ll play 162.”

Trailing 8-0 early, the Tigers scored three times in the seventh and four more in the eighth to make it 8-all.

In the ninth, Alex Sanchez walked with one out and stole two bases. Warren Morris then struck out on a wild pitch from Jesse Orosco (1-1) as the ball went to the backstop.

Sanchez scored standing up as the Tigers streamed from the dugout and the sparse crowd cheered and danced.

Yankees 6, Orioles 2

New York — Roger Clemens walked off a winner in the final regular-season start of his career, leading New York past Baltimore. The Rocket earned his 310th victory, and Juan Rivera homered twice for the Yankees, who reached 100 wins for the second straight year and the 17th time in their history.

The AL East champions have home-field advantage throughout the postseason, which begins Tuesday against Minnesota.

Clemens (17-9), who plans to retire after the season, will pitch Game 3 of that series next Saturday at the Metrodome — meaning this might have been his final appearance ever at Yankee Stadium.

Baseball’s only six-time Cy Young Award winner made the most of the moment, going six innings in a solid tuneup for October.

Blue Jays 5, Indians 4

Toronto — Roy Halladay became the only 22-game winner in the major leagues as Toronto beat Cleveland. Halladay (22-7) set a team record for wins, surpassing Roger Clemens and Jack Morris.

The 26-year-old right-hander, a leading contender for the AL Cy Young Award, allowed four runs on eight hits, while striking out nine and walking one. His ninth complete game tied Mark Mulder for the most in the majors.

Halladay, who leads the majors with 266 innings pitched, had a chance at his 22nd win Monday, but lost 5-2 to Tampa Bay.

The right-hander was ejected in that game for hitting Rocco Baldelli with a pitch, and left trailing 1-0 after five innings.

Devil Rays 5, Red Sox 4

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Dave McCarty’s fly ball to left field wound up in the stands, but he was called out because of fan interference in the ninth inning and Boston lost to Tampa Bay. The crazy ending touched off an argument in which Doug Mirabelli was ejected for arguing from the dugout.

With one out and no one on in the ninth, McCarty hit a drive and Carl Crawford went back to the wall. As Crawford jumped, a fan appeared to reach over the 11-foot, 5-inch fence and the ball hit the fan, bouncing into the stands.

McCarty was already at second base when second-base umpire and crew chief Joe West ruled McCarty out.

Mariners 7, Athletics 4

Seattle — Ichiro Suzuki hit a tiebreaking single, and Rey Sanchez had a two-run double in the sixth inning as Seattle beat Oakland. Manager Ken Macha watched his AL West champs lose to the Mariners for the second straight game.

Rangers 12, Angels 3

Anaheim, Calif. — Rafael Palmeiro drove in four runs and Gerald Laird hit his first major-league home run as Texas beat Anaheim.