Trevor Bauer closed his eyes in the top of the sixth inning, composing himself before he faced the leadoff batter. In typical Bauer fashion, he had a messy first inning and gave up four runs to the Tigers, followed by pitching five innings of scoreless baseball. The Indians tried to bring the entire team back into the game just as Bauer had done, though, despite tying the game in the seventh inning, they could not pull out ahead of the Tigers. Detroit delivered a seven-run eleventh inning and handed Cleveland an 11-4 loss in game four of their series, which allowed the Tigers to emerge the victors of the four-game series.
Facing the reigning Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, the Indians were held to three runs during his six innings of work. They delivered once more late in the game, though their four runs weren’t enough.
The Tigers struck early, as the bases were loaded with following two hits and an intentional walk thrown to Victor Martinez. Ian Kinsler scored on a wild pitch, while Tyler Collins and Martinez scored on a single from Bryan Holaday. J.D. Martinez scored on a single from Rajai Davis, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead after one inning.
Following the difficult first inning, Bauer held the Tigers to the initial four runs for the rest of his outing. Davis attempted to go yard in the top of the fourth, though Michael Brantley made an impressive catch at the wall for the first out in the inning. Brantley continued his strong performance with a leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth, scoring on a sacrifice fly from Yan Gomes to shorten the lead to 4-1 Detroit. Bauer pitched five and two-thirds innings, exiting the game having given up six hits and allowing only the initial four runs from the first inning. He struck out four during his outing.
The Indians threatened in the sixth on a double by Jason Kipnis that was bobbled by Davis in right field. and sent Carlos Santana to third. Santana scored on a grounder by Yan Gomes and Kipnis shortened the Indians lead to only one run as he scored on an RBI single by Lonnie Chisenhall.
C.C. Lee pitched the seventh inning for the Tribe, retiring the side to keep the Tigers to four runs.
Blaine Hardy appeared for the Tigers in the seventh, immediately giving up an RBI double to Brantley that sent Michael Bourn home to tie the game at four.
The game remained tied into the ninth, as Cody Allen offered a 1-2-3 top of the inning. Phil Coke gave up a single to Bourn with one out, who was then thrown out at second to send the game into extra innings. Scott Atchison came on for the Tribe in the tenth, giving up a double to Miguel Cabrera and intentionally walking Victor Martinez with no outs in the inning, but emerging from the inning without allowing any Tigers to cross home plate. Josh Tomlin, however, could not maintain the same success, as he loaded the bases and gave up a two-run single to Eugenio Suarez to give the Tiger a 6-4 lead in the eleventh. To secure the lead, Victor Martinez delivered a three-run home run with one out to put the Tigers up 9-4. Brian Price ended the game for the Indians, hitting J.D. Martinez to put a runner on base with one out. Nick Castellanos doubled and both he and Martinez scored on a single from Andrew Romine, giving Detroit their final victory score of 11-4. The Tribe could not respond in the bottom of the inning, and fell to 71-67 on the season, while Detroit rose to 77-63 upon the game’s conclusion.
The Indians will try to redeem themselves as they start a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox tomorrow night, which will match Tribe leftie T.J. House against White Sox southpaw Chris Sale.
Photo: Jason Miller/Getty Images
