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Ordonez's three-run blast in 10th helps Tigers down Indians

Aug 15, 2007 - 3:57 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- A great pitching duel between two of the best young pitchers in the game turned into a laugher when Joe Borowski entered.

The Detroit Tigers scored four runs off Borowski, three on a homer by Magglio Ordonez in the 10th inning, to break a first-place tie in the American League Central Division with a 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday.

After Detroit reliever Fernando Rodney (2-5) stranded a leadoff double by Chris Gomez in the ninth by striking out the next three batters, Borowski (2-5) walked Curtis Granderson to start the 10th. Rookie Ryan Raburn then looped a single to right advancing Granderson to third. Gary Sheffield followed with a line shot over shortstop Jhonny Peralta's leap, scoring Granderson.

"With this offense if you give us a second chance to score runs, we're going to capitalize," Sheffield said.

Ordonez followed by drilling a first-pitch offering from Borowski well into the left field seats for his 22nd home run of the season.

"Mags has been a great player all year," Sheffield said.

Detroit closer Todd Jones survived a shaky ninth before closing out the victory, but Tigers manager Jim Leyland downplayed the significance of the win.

"Don't get too excited about this showdown stuff," Leyland said. "It's still August 14th. I'm not going to jump up and down because we won. If we lose tomorrow, we're right back to where we started."

While Leyland was downplaying the significance of the victory, Indians manager Eric Wedge has had enough of his team's lackluster effort after he saw the Indians losing streak stretch to a season-high four games.

"These guys have to dig deep," said Wedge angrily. "We're going to find out how tough these guys are. It's easy to be tough when you are winning. When you're going good, you get cheered. When you are going bad, you get booed. That's where the toughness comes in.

"We have some guys who might be feeling sorry for themselves. I don't like that."

Cleveland's offense has been non-existent in its last 21 games, having scored only 69 runs and batting .230. Tuesday night they failed to get back-to-back hits and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

"That says it all right there," Wedge said. "That's all you need to know."

Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman and Indians starter C.C. Sabathia both departed after seven strong innings each and a 2-2 tie.

Bonderman yielded a two-run homer to Grady Sizemore in the first. In his last five starts, Bonderman has allowed 13 runs and a 11.73 ERA in the first inning. He left after allowing four hits and two walks to go along with eight strikeouts.

Bonderman gave his team a chance to win the game in the seventh as he struck out Josh Barfield with runners on first and second and two out.

"I made pitches when I had to," Bonderman said. "I wanted to keep the game close."

Sabathia couldn't hold the lead but was equally effective, yielding two runs and seven hits in seven frames with a walk and eight strikeouts. Sabathia bounced back from his last start against Detroit on July 5, where he allowed seven runs in four innings in his worst start of the season.

Detroit scored in the sixth and seventh. Omar Infante led off the sixth with a double to left-center and scored two batters later on Ordonez's groundout. The slugger has 108 RBI.

"I had to work pretty hard," Sabathia said. "I gave up a couple of leadoff doubles that hurt."

In the seventh, Marcus Thames hit a leadoff double to center and scored on Infante's RBI single. But Detroit wasn't able to take the lead as Sabathia retired the next three batters.

Center fielder Granderson saved the game with a diving catch in the eighth to keep the score tied at 2-2. With runners on first and second and two out, Travis Hafner hit a sinking line drive off Bobby Seay to left-center. Granderson came racing in and laid out to make a sprawling catch, just before the ball hit the ground.

"I wasn't sure if I was going to get to it," Granderson said. "I was going to try my best to. You have to keep that run from scoring. If I don't dive, the run scores anyway."

"(Granderson) made a big play when we needed it," Leyland said. "You win games like this because of plays like that." It was a huge, huge play for us."

Both teams came into the game not playing their best baseball. Cleveland was 13-17 since the All-Star break and Detroit was 8-17 since July 17.

Detroit was forced to play shorthanded because second baseman Placido Polanco was out with the flu that has been making its way through the Tigers' clubhouse.

"We have a lot of depth," Sheffield said. "We've got guys that when other guys go down, their backups step up."