Tigers 5 - 4 Guardians
Final/10
  for this game

Tigers top Indians in 10 after bullpen blows lead

Jun 22, 2014 - 7:03 AM Cleveland, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Miguel Cabrera's RBI double in the 10th inning lifted the Detroit Tigers to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night after their bullpen blew a lead for Justin Verlander.

Verlander went seven innings, retiring the last seven batters he faced before the bullpen coughed up a 4-2 lead. Al Alburquerque gave up a run in the eighth inning and the Indians rallied with two outs in the ninth against closer Joe Nathan, tying the score at 4-4 on Michael Bourn's RBI single.

In the 10th, Ian Kinsler led off with a single off Cody Allen (3-2), went to second on Austin Jackson's sacrifice bunt and scored on Cabrera's double off the left-center field wall.

"His hot zone is pretty much all over the plate," Allen said of Cabrera. "I left it down and over the plate and he was ready for it."

Phil Coke, like Nathan in the ninth inning, struck out the first two Indians batters in the 10th before giving up a single to Carlos Santana. But he fanned Lonnie Chisenhall to end the game, giving the Tigers their third straight win, including the first two games of this three-game series.

Rajai Davis and Kinsler hit back-to-back solo homers in the seventh to give the Tigers the lead and knock Indians starter Trevor Bauer out of the game. Victor Martinez also homered and drove in two runs for Detroit.

Verlander, who entered the game with an 0-3 record and 9.16 ERA in three June starts, struck out eight and gave up two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and a walk.

"He looked good. He threw hard, he went after hitters," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said of Verlander. "Threw strikes. Kept his breaking ball down. I think we can probably say that was his best outing of the year."

Carlos Santana hit a solo homer and Asdrubal Cabrera had three hits for the Indians, who have lost three of their last four.

Alburquerque let the first two batters on in the eighth, hitting Bourn and giving up an RBI double to Asdrubal Cabrera to let the Indians pull within a run.

Blaine Hardy relieved Alburquerque and got three straight outs, stranding Cabrera at third base, and Nathan had the Indians on the ropes in the ninth after striking out Chisenhall and Nick Swisher.

But David Murphy stroked a two-out, two-strike single, moved to third on Yan Gomes' base hit and then scored when Bourn slapped his tying single through the left side to make it 4-4.

Earlier, Martinez hit his 19th homer of the season on the second pitch of the second inning to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The Indians tied the score in the bottom of the inning after Chisenhall sliced a double to left field and scored when the second baseman Kinsler booted Swisher's grounder for an error.

Santana laced his 11th homer of the season over the left-field wall with one out in the fourth inning to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead but Detroit tied it in the sixth after Cabrera led off with a double and scored on Martinez's single.

Game Notes

Bauer gave up eight hits and two walks and had five strikeouts ... The Indians were just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight men on base.






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