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Indians beat Zumaya, Tigers in 10

Aug 23, 2007 - 9:45 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- A couple of late-season pickups helped the Cleveland Indians keep the Detroit Tigers in their second-half swoon.

Kenny Lofton's infield single broke a scoreless tie in the top of the 10th inning and Chris Gomez followed with a two-run base hit, lifting the Indians to a 3-1 victory over the Tigers in the rubber match of a three-game series on Thursday.

Cleveland (70-56) stretched its lead in the American League Central over Detroit (68-59) to 2 1/2 games. The advantage is the Indians' biggest since July 3.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the 10th inning, Lofton, who was acquired from the Texas Rangers on July 28, grounded the first pitch from hard-throwing Joel Zumaya up the middle that Ramon Santiago managed to dive and get a glove on. The shortstop's flip to second was not in time, allowing pinch runner Josh Barfield to score the game's first run.

"I haven't see him (Zumaya) before and I didn't want to get into a hole," Lofton said. "Pinch hitting is not easy, I wanted to see something that I could get my bat on the ball."

Gomez, who was claimed off waivers from Baltimore on August 10, provided some breathing room with a line drive to right-center field that gave Cleveland a 3-0 lead.

"I just wanted to get a good pitch that I could hit," Gomez said. "It was a good pitched game on both sides, we just kept at them, something had to give."

Joe Borowski gave up an RBI double to Marcus Thames, but got Ivan Rodriguez to fly out to right with the tying runs in scoring position for his 36th save.

"I thought (Wednesday) was a real good win for us," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "But today, we put ourselves in positions to win this series and for us to take advantage of that - that says a lot about our guys."

Rafael Perez (1-0), who struck out Curtis Granderson with two runners on base to end the ninth, picked up his first career win.

Zumaya (1-2), who was making his second appearance since being activated from the DL on Tuesday, surrendered all three runs to take the loss.

"I got to expect games like that," Zumaya said. "It's tough. I went out there and tried to do what I can do, didn't turn out the way I wanted it. But it's over with now. I've got to clear this out of my mind and go out there and try to get guys out."

Indians starter Jake Westbrook went eight strong innings, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out three.

"I felt good and strong out there," Westbrook said, "Not getting the win wasn't that important, what was is putting up zeros and getting deep into the game to give us a chance to win."

"It was a good win for us."

Nate Robertson was equally as effective, pitching a season-high 8 2/3 innings, allowing four hits with three strikeouts. The lefthander did not allow a runner past first base until Jhonny Peralta doubled to left with two outs in the top of the eighth.

The Tigers squandered numerous scoring opportunities throughout. They left 12 men on base and went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

"It was a good ballgame but we just didn't get a big hit," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We had several opportunities to get one and win the game in regulation. We just didn't get it. That's the way it goes. Nate was fantastic. Tremendous, tremendous outing and that was a shame not to get him a win."

Detroit was without slugger Gary Sheffield for the second straight game. The veteran is out indefinitely with a right shoulder injury.

The Tigers fell to 16-25 since the All-Star break. The defending AL champions also have lost nine of their 14 home games.