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Carmona, Jurrjens meet again in AL Central showdown

Aug 21, 2007 - 1:35 PM Cleveland (68-55) at Detroit (67-57) 7:05 pm EDT

DETROIT (Ticker) -- Fausto Carmona and rookie Jair Jurrjens face each other for the second time in less than a week when the Cleveland Indians travel to Comerica Park to face the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday in an important American League Central showdown.

The Indians lead the Tigers by 1 1/2 games in the closest race in the AL. Going against Cleveland is that since winning their first five games against Detroit this season, the Indians have dropped five of the next seven meetings.

One of their two wins came on Wednesday in Cleveland when Carmona (14-7, 3.16 ERA) struck out a career-high 10 and allowed two runs and four hits over eight innings in a 5-2 win.

The outing - which snapped a personal three-game losing streak - was the first time in five turns he received more than one run of support from his offense.

The sinkerballer has had a fair amount of success against his division rival, going 3-1 in seven appearances - four starts - over his two-year major league career.

His opposition will be the same as it was six days ago in Jurrjens (0-1, 5.14), who will make his home debut, takes the mound. In his major league debut against Carmona, the rookie righthander surrendered four runs and five hits over seven frames in the loss.