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Tigers rally, send Indians to 9th straight loss

Aug 6, 2012 - 12:52 AM Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - It can't get much worse for the Cleveland Indians.

The Detroit Tigers were facing a three-run deficit in the 10th inning with nobody on base and two outs, but Miguel Cabrera capped an improbable rally with a game-winning two-run blast to send the Indians to their ninth straight defeat, 10-8.

Chris Perez (0-3) retired the first two hitters he faced, but lost his control and walked Alex Avila and Andy Dirks -- the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup -- to bring the tying run to the plate.

Austin Jackson roped a run-scoring double to bring Detroit within two and put the tying run in scoring position, and Omar Infante poked a game-tying single to center on a 2-2 pitch.

Cabrera, the team's best hitter, had a chance to end the contest, and he did just that, blasting a Perez offering over the wall in left-center for Detroit's eighth straight home win.

"It's good to get those wins with teams in your division," said Jackson. "Getting those wins, especially a sweep with a team in your division, it's a good time."

It made a winner of Darin Downs (1-0), who allowed one of the three runs Detroit gave up in the 10th inning.

The Indians have now lost nine straight, their longest skid since an 11-gamer from 2009. The team record is 12. All the losses encompassed a road trip that ended Sunday, with their last victory coming on July 26 against the Tigers.

"Obviously every body knows we're playing bad ball and this has been a terrible road trip," admitted Perez. "You keep coming back adding one on, keep coming back adding one on, put three up in extra innings and then watch me kiss it away just sucks."

Detroit nearly won the game in the ninth, when Jackson looked to break a tie with a leadoff triple -- his second of the game. It came off Josh Tomlin, who would have been the starter if not for a demotion to the bullpen earlier this week. Tomlin, though, recovered to strike out Infante before intentionally walking Cabrera and Prince Fielder to load the bases.

Quintin Berry followed with a groundball to first baseman Carlos Santana, who began a 3-2-3 double play to get out of the inning.

Travis Hafner and Ezequiel Carrera blasted back-to-back homers in the 10th off Joaquin Benoit to put the Indians ahead by two, and Lou Marson added an RBI double later in the inning to put Cleveland's lengthy losing skid on the brink of the rear-view mirror.

The Tigers, though, put together an improbable rally to extend the Indians' misery, capped by Cabrera's fifth walkoff homer of his career.

Michael Brantley and Hafner put the Indians ahead early with a pair of RBI singles in the first inning, though Fielder cut Detroit's deficit in half with a run-scoring base hit in the home half.

Both teams scored a run in the third: the Indians on Shin-Soo Choo's homer and the Tigers on Cabrera's RBI groundout. Detroit tied the game in the fourth on an Avila RBI single, but Santana's RBI single in the fifth put Cleveland back ahead.

Infante led off the fifth with his ninth homer of the year and first with Detroit, tying the game again at four. Hafner gave the Indians yet another lead in the seventh with an RBI single, but Fielder squared the game in the home half with a sacrifice fly off Vinnie Pestano.

Game Notes

It was the 100th go-ahead homer of Cabrera's career out of 304 total...The Indians will return home to play Minnesota at home for three games in an attempt to stop the skid...Cleveland's starters during the losing streak are 0-7 with an 11.69 earned run average...Chris Seddon made his 2012 debut for the Indians and allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings...Detroit starter Max Scherzer allowed four runs in five innings...Downs' win was the first of his career...Tigers catcher Gerald Laird and manager Jim Leyland were ejected in the second inning for arguing a call at first.