CLEVELAND — It was bullpen warfare at its best Tuesday at Progressive Field for the opener of a pivotal series between the top two teams in the Central Division.

And the Indians won the battle.

A marathon night at the ballpark ended with Tigers reliever David Pauley hitting Kosuke Fukudome with a pitch with the bases loaded and one out in the 14th inning, giving the Indians a 3-2 victory.

The game was tied at two for 11 innings before Cleveland finally won it in walk-off fashion.

The win, the Indians’ 12th straight at home over the Tigers, left them trailing first-place Detroit by three games in the division standings.

Neither starting pitcher, the Indians’ Justin Masterson nor Detroit’s Doug Fister, figured in the decision, both departing after a rain delay of two hours and three minutes and the Tigers coming to bat for the third inning.

Both allowed two runs, the Indians getting both of their runs off Fister in the first on a single from Asdrubal Cabrera and a sacrifice fly from Carlos Santana.

Detroit didn’t require a hit to drive in either of its runs off Masterson in the second, with the first three batters reaching then riding home on ground outs.

Both bullpens took over from there.

Starting with left-hander Duane Below, Detroit’s bullpen retired 13 straight (12 from Below) before Santana drew a one-out walk in the seventh. The Indians didn’t get a hit until a leadoff double from pinch hitter Jason Donald in the eighth.

Cleveland relievers were just as stingy, shutting out the Tigers on six hits over the final 12 innings.

With both pens working magic, there weren’t many opportunities, but the Indians blew one after Donald delivered the double in the eighth.

Donald advanced to third on a groundout from Ezequiel Carrera before Acta went to one of his favorite moves — the squeeze play — only to have it backfire.

Though it has worked nearly every time he has employed it this season, Michael Brantley couldn’t reach an outside breaking ball, leaving Donald standing up and tagged out by Detroit catcher Alex Avila.

The Indians got just two more hits after the Donald double, one of them from Travis Hafner that was sandwiched between two walks to load the bases for Fukudome in the 14th.

Fukudome had struck out in his four previous at-bats and appeared headed for a fifth when Pauley got ahead 1-2. But Cleveland’s right fielder was plunked on the left arm, touching off a rare walk-off hit-by-pitch celebration.

It was the first time the Indians won in that fashion since Alex Cole was hit by a pitch to force in the game-winning run on June 11, 1991, vs. Toronto.

A total of 15 pitchers took the mound in a game that began at 7:06 p.m. and ended at 1:52 a.m.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Fan him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.