Rick Porcello, defense and the bats struggled again in key spots, dooming the Tigers to a 5-3 loss against their Central Division rivals, the Cleveland Indians.
The Indians scored first on an RBI double by Asdrubal Cabrera in the first, but the Tigers responded in the second with a three-run blast by Alex Avila to take an early 3-1 lead. Unfortunately, that's all the Tigers would score while the Indians would go on to score four more times off Porcello.
Porcello lasted just 5.1 innings and gave up four earned runs on eight hits. Brennan Boesch had an egregious error that cost the Tigers a run, but made up for it by throwing a runner out at the plate in the eighth.
The Tigers got runners at the corners with one out in the ninth off Indians closer Chris Perez, with the meat of the order up, but Perez caught Cabrera looking for the second out and induced Fielder to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game.
Ubaldo Jimenez picked up the win for the Indians.
The three-game set continues Wednesday night with Doug Fister squaring off against Zach McAllister. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET.
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