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Sowers, Cabrera vault Indians past Tigers

Sep 21, 2008 - 4:18 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- The Cleveland Indians went into the season expecting to compete for a World Series title. After injuries and shoddy play torpedoed their season, Cleveland is happy just to have a shot of finishing above .500.

Jeremy Sowers pitched six effective innings and Asdrubal Cabrera drove in a pair of runs as the Cleveland Indians moved to the break-even mark with a 6-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.

A night after a bench-clearing brawl that saw four players ejected, both teams behaved accordingly.

Shin-Soo Choo drove in a pair of runs for the Indians (77-77), who have won five straight and are at the .500 mark for the first time since owning a 22-22 record on May 19.

"It's a (heck of) an accomplishment for this ballclub, considering where we were and everything we have gone through this year," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "It shows how hard these guys have worked and how much better they have gotten."

On July 9 - two days after trading its ace CC Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers - Cleveland fell a season-low 16 games below .500. However, the Indians have since gone 40-24 - the second-best record in the American League during that span.

"It's significant to get back there," Wedge said. "We have eight games left and we have to go out there and play like we have been and play them like they are our last, and finish this thing off strong."

Sowers (4-8) did his part by holding the Tigers to one run and five hits. The lefthander allowed a run in the first but settled down to retire 11 of the last 12 batters he faced.

"I had better command as the game went on," Sowers said. "It wasn't particularly bad in the first couple of innings. (Detroit) put a couple of good swings on the ball, but I was able to curb any rallies by getting the third out in those early innings."

Choo delivered the key hit with a two-out, two-run single in the fourth off Justin Verlander that extended the Indians' advantage to 4-1.

"Whenever I get up, there are runners on base," said Choo, who has 17 RBI in 18 games this month. "I am just trying to help the team out whenever I can. When there are guys on base, I try to bring them in."

Curtis Granderson's two-run homer in the seventh off Rafael Perez cut the deficit to 4-3, but Cabrera hit a two-run single in the bottom half of the inning to restore the three-run advantage.

"That was big for us to separate late," Wedge said. "Asdrubal had a great at-bat."

Brendan Donnelly pitched a scoreless eighth and Jensen Lewis worked around a double and a walk in the ninth for his 11th save in 12 chances this season.

Cleveland scored single runs in the first and second with the help of Verlander (10-17), who plunked Jamey Carroll with one out in the opening frame. After two wild pitches, Carroll came around to score on Jhonny Peralta's groundout.

An inning later, Verlander balked in a run to give the Indians a 2-1 lead.

Verlander yielded four runs and four hits in four innings while striking out four. The righthander struggled with his command, walking four and throwing three wild pitches in his latest bad start at Progressive Field.

In eight career starts here, Verlander is 1-7 with a 9.00 ERA. His 10 career losses to the Indians are the most to any opponent.

"This by far is the best stuff I've had at this point in season," Verlander said. "I just struggled with my command."

"It was another tough loss for us," said Lloyd McClendon, who is the acting manager while Jim Leyland served the second of his three-game suspension for repeatedly arguing with umpires which has handed down on Thursday.