The Indians now are in the position of having to win tomorrow to avoid facing their largest deficit of the season after the Tigers jumped ahead in the first inning and never looked back on their way to a 10-1 victory that puts Detroit ahead by 3.5 games in the AL Central.
David Huff was knocked out of the game in the third inning after his first rough outing of the season. Huff (1-2) gave up five runs in 2.1 frames, and the Tigers added to their lead against Chad Durbin and Frank Herrmann, although in fairness, Durbin’s two runs surrendered were both unearned after an error on left-fielder Michael Brantley in the fifth inning.
The Tribe’s only run of the night came on a third-inning homer from Shin-Soo Choo, who belted his sixth long-ball of the season for the Indians’ only extra-base hit of the night.
Cleveland left nine on base against Doug Fister (5-13) and two relievers, and went 0-for-4 with men in scoring position to pretty much negate their seven hits.
In two games in this series, the Indians have scored two runs on 12 hits, and have only two extra-base hits.
Choo had three hits for the Tribe, while Carlos Santana added two, but truly, there is not much to be said or done about this one except for to file it, forget it, and move on.
On Sunday at 1:05 Ubaldo Jimenez will take on Rick Porcello. The Tribe got Jimenez for just such a need-to-win game, and having defeated the Tigers in Cleveland on August 10, let’s hope that Jimenez can have a repeat and salvage a game in this crucial series.