The Detroit Tigers are currently sitting in third place in the AL Central, and though not many games separate the teams in the top three, they haven't been giving themselves much help when it comes to their season series against the second-place Cleveland Indians. After dropping game one of the three-game set by a score of 4-2, the Tigers went on to lose the second game by a score of 9-6.
A four-run fifth inning gave The Tribe a scare, but they were largely in control of this one after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Maz Scherzer was unable to contain them and right the ship, being pulled after four innings having given up five earned runs - though eight were scored on his watch - off of seven hits, including two home runs. He was handed the loss, while Jeanmar Gomez picked up the win for the Indians with five innings of six-run ball.
Gomez picked up the win without striking out any batters. In fact, only three Tigers struck out at the plate. Unfortunately, they had trouble actually rounding the bases to make it back to the plate. The fifth inning saw Quintin Berry get a double to left field, scoring Bryan Holaday, who was in turn scored by Ramon Santiago. Berry was then plated by Miguel Cabrera after a double to right field, and Cabrera himself was scored by a Prince Fielder single.
Still, it wasn't enough for Detroit, as Asdrubal Cabrera added an insurance run in the sixth and there wasn't much fight left in the Tigers after that. Cleveland has now won five straight games against the Tigers, all of them this season. There's only been five games played. Detroit can get their climb back to the top of the AL Central started by avoiding a sweep on Thursday afternoon.
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