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Apr 10, 2010 - 10:15 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Cleveland (2-2) at Detroit (3-1), 1:05 p.m. EDT

Justin Verlander never had much success against the Cleveland Indians until last year, when he simply dominated them en route to a career-high 19 victories.

The Detroit Tigers hope their ace can beat Cleveland again Sunday when they try to complete a third straight three-game sweep of their AL Central rival.

Verlander (0-0, 7.20 ERA) lost his major league debut against the Indians (2-3) on July 4, 2005, and went 4-10 with a 6.70 ERA in his first four seasons against them. He never had a double-digit strikeout effort in that span and lasted at least seven innings four times in 15 outings.

The right-hander turned around those woes in 2009, winning all four starts with a 0.90 ERA. He struck out 11 Indians three times and pitched at least seven innings in all of those outings, including his third career shutout in a two-hitter May 8.

Verlander threw 93 pitches and gave up four runs in five innings Monday in a season-opening 8-4 victory at Kansas City. This will be his first start at Comerica Park, where he went 10-2 with a 2.81 ERA in 16 outings last year.

Detroit (4-1) pushed its win streak over Cleveland to eight Saturday with a 4-2 victory. Jeremy Bonderman allowed one run and one hit in five innings and Magglio Ordonez had a two-run homer in the first.

That was Ordonez's only hit in three at-bats, dropping his batting average to .476 after he opened the season with four multihit games.

Ordonez is 11 for 34 (.324) with three homers in his career against Jake Westbrook, who will start the finale for the Indians.

Westbrook (0-1, 11.25) hopes to put a poor first outing behind him after he allowed five runs over four-plus innings in Monday's season-opening 6-0 road loss to the White Sox. Westbrook - back from reconstructive elbow surgery - tied a club record with four wild pitches, hit two batters and walked four.

"Chalk it up to I just didn't pitch well," he said. "I'm done with the excuses of you haven't pitched in a year and a half. Now it's just a matter of getting better."

The veteran right-hander last faced Detroit in 2007. He's 4-8 with a 6.48 ERA in 17 career starts against the Tigers, including 0-3 with a 6.04 ERA in his last four at Comerica Park.

The Indians are struggling at the plate, hitting .210 and scoring 14 runs. They have an AL-low one homer - when Travis Hafner went deep in a 5-2 loss Friday.

Shin-Soo Choo has two hits in 18 at-bats, and Cleveland's No. 3 hitter is 5 for 25 with 10 strikeouts in his career against Verlander.

"You can't win a lot of games by scoring two," manager Manny Acta said. "But we're battling against some good pitching."

Detroit's bullpen has allowed one run and four hits in eight innings in this series. Ryan Perry recorded the last four outs Saturday for his first career save.

"It was a dream come true for me to come in the ninth for a save," Perry said.