The Cleveland Indians did everything conceivable to win on Sunday afternoon against the Tigers at Comerica Park, but in the end came away with a frustrating 10-8 loss after a wild 10th inning flipped the game on its head.
Cleveland opened the day quite well with a pair of runs off Tigers starter Max Scherzer in the first inning, and added a Shin-Soo Choo solo home run and a Carlos Santana RBI single to eventually knock Scherzer from the mound after just five innings. With the score deadlocked at five apiece to open extra innings, Indians hitters wasted little time jumping on the fastball of Detroit right-hander Joaquin Benoit. A solo home run from Travis Hafner was immediately followed by a blast from promising youngster Ezequiel Carrera to break the game open, as catcher Lou Marson doubled in Jack Hannahan for good measure to give the Tribe an 8-5 advantage.
But instead of locking down the game in the bottom half of the frame, Indians closer Chris Perez completely stalled after recording the first two outs of the inning. And after giving up two separate clutch hits to Austin Jackson and Omar Infante that pulled the game into a tie, he promptly served up a two-run bomb to Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera that capped off a five-run Tigers inning.
Losers of nine straight games with no end in sight, next up for Manny Acta's team is a three-game homestand with a Minnesota Twins, a squad that should still be reeling from an impressive series victory over Boston this weekend.
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