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Lee notches 10th win as Indians beat Tigers

Jun 10, 2008 - 4:34 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Cliff Lee was not going to let some bad weather stop him doing his job.

Lee registered his 10th win this season and Ryan Garko homered and drove in four runs as the Cleveland Indians rolled to an 8-2 win over the Detroit Tigers in Monday's four-game series finale.

With the win, the 30-year-old Lee (10-1) became the first 10-game winner in the American League. He yielded two runs and six hits with five strikeouts in five innings.

The lefthander almost did not have a chance to record the victory as rain halted the game for 57 minutes with two outs in the top of the fifth.

"If it had been more than about an hour, it would have been tough, but we were able to keep him moving and keep him warm," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We were comfortable with the extra inning, and we hadn't been planning to let him get over 100 (pitches) anyway."

Lee returned to the mound following the delay and tossed a perfect bottom half of the frame to secure the victory.

"It's good to get to 10," Lee said. "But the most important thing is to be effective at my job every time out."

Cleveland's offense provided Lee a 3-0 advantage before he even took the field as Garko's three-run homer off Detroit starter Dontrelle Willis in the first opened the scoring.

"I was looking for something down the middle or I wasn't going to swing, because I knew he was just trying to get something over the plate at that point," Garko said. "It's never easy against Dontrelle, but he'd already walked two guys and it was 3-1, so I knew the next pitch was going to be down the middle or another ball. That's a good position to be in."

The Indians added to the lead as Casey Blake drew a leadoff walk and scored on Kelly Shoppach's two-run blast to left that sparked a five-run second against Willis (0-1), who gave up eight runs, three hits and five walks while retiring just four batters.

"It was a rough day for me. I wasn't where I wanted to be," Willis said. "I had no command of my fastball, and if can't control that pitch, it's going to be a long day for you. They made me pay for all of my mistakes. I just want to get back out there and try to do better."

Willis' poor performance comes at a bad time for the Tigers' rotation, which already has lost righthander Jeremy Bonderman - likely for the season - with a blood clot in a vein that transports blood to the chest.

Edgar Renteria had a run-scoring single and Placido Polanco added an RBI double for Detroit, which fell to just 14-15 at Comerica Park.