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Renteria, six-run eighth fuel Tigers past Indians

Jun 8, 2008 - 12:58 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Better late than never.

Miguel Cabrera drove in the go-ahead run and Edgar Renteria hit a grand slam to cap an impressive six-run eighth inning as the Detroit Tigers rallied for an 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

The win also snapped a four-game slide for the Tigers.

Cleveland starter Aaron Laffey was in control and headed for his first road win prior to exiting in favor of reliever Masa Kobayashi (3-3), who got the final out in the seventh before things took a turn for the worst.

Kobayashi's first pitch of the eighth was belted over the left field wall by Marcus Thames, tying the game at 3-3. Magglio Ordonez then doubled to chase Kobayashi, and Rafael Betancourt was greeted by Cabrera's go-ahead RBI single.

"That gave us a spark,' Thames said. "Everyone got pumped up a little after that."

Carlos Guillen then singled to left, and Brent Clevlen's sacrifice put runners into scoring position. Brandon Inge was walked intentionally to load the bases before Betancourt struck out Ryan Raburn for the second out of the inning.

But the righthander did not fare as well against Renteria, who deposited a 1-2 pitch over the left-center field wall for his second grand slam this season, capping the uprising.

"I'm very happy for Miguel," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He's had a lot of pressure on him, and he came through big. He got a huge hit, and then Renteria put it away."

"We've got to find a way to iron out our bullpen," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We've got to be able to get from the starter to the closer."

Wedge's comments may have been directed at Betancourt.

"He's a guy that we need, and we need to get him going," Wedge said. "We saw what he was capable of doing last year, and we need that again. We have to help him get back to where he was. He says he's fine, and he's throwing the ball hard. He just can't keep anything down."

Zach Miner (3-3) picked up the win and closer Todd Jones got the final out for his ninth save.

Tigers starter Kenny Rogers gave up three runs - one earned - and five hits in seven frames. The veteran lefthander struck out three and walked two.

"(Rogers has) been real good lately," Leyland said. "He turned it up when he had to, took some off, pitched within himself. I thought he was tremendous today, a really great effort. I'm not going to get carried away with one game, but any game is a big game for us right now. We're just trying to get the ship righted."

Cleveland held a 2-0 lead until Guillen's two-run blast - his sixth - off Laffey in the fourth forged a tie.

"It was 3-1, and I'm going with my best pitch," Laffey said. "Unfortunately, I threw a (bad) slider instead of my good slider, and (Guillen) put a great swing on it."

The 23-year-old Laffey yielded two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. The lefthander walked two and struck out two in his first career appearance against Detroit.

"This is good because I was able to come out after a tough outing against Texas and do a good job," Laffey said of his performance. "This will help me put Texas behind me."