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Tigers 9, Indians 6: Tribe won’t finish above .500

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

DETROIT — With one swing, Wilson Betemit helped ease at least one of his manager’s postseason concerns.

Betemit hit a 423-foot home run in his first game back from left knee soreness, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 9-6 on Tuesday night.

Betemit hadn’t played since Sept. 16, and manager Jim Leyland said Monday he was concerned about the third baseman. But Betemit was in the lineup Tuesday, and he gave AL Central champion Detroit a 4-0 lead in the second inning with the towering homer to right field.

Betemit also drew a walk, and he scored twice before being pulled after five innings.

“It worked out pretty good,” Leyland said. “Wilson came back and played a few innings, went up and got treated right afterward. He’ll play tomorrow again.”

The Tigers entered the day one game behind AL West champion Texas, which played at Los Angeles on Tuesday night. Detroit needs to finish at least even with the Rangers to have home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. If not, the Tigers will start on the road against the New York Yankees.

“You just embrace it,” Detroit right-hander Max Scherzer said. “Who knows what happens? But that’s the beauty of postseason baseball. We’re just excited to be in it.”

Scherzer (15-9) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings, striking out seven in his final tuneup for the postseason. Jose Valverde pitched the ninth, earning his 48th save in as many chances.

Jeanmar Gomez (5-3) allowed eight runs and 10 hits in 4 2-3 innings. He had won his previous five starts.

Delmon Young had three hits for Detroit, including a two-run homer.

Miguel Cabrera homered and doubled, and his AL-leading batting average remained at .343.

“He’s locked in pretty good, obviously. That’s good news,” Leyland said. “He’s swinging really good. His concentration level is tremendous right now, so hopefully that’ll keep up.”

Detroit has left no doubt about which team is the class of the division. The Tigers have won their last 15 games against second-place Cleveland and third-place Chicago. They have won nine in a row against the Indians, who trail Detroit by 14 games.

“That’s a team that is going into the playoffs in better shape than almost any other team,” Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. “They’ve been playing great for more than a month — and they are playing hard for home-field advantage. You can’t get away with many mistakes against them right now.”

The Tigers took the first game of this regular season-ending series against Cleveland 14-0, and they kept pouring it on against Gomez. Young opened the scoring with an RBI single, and Magglio Ordonez drove in two runs later in the first with a single.

After Betemit’s homer, which landed around the back of the lower level of seating in right field, Cleveland scored a run in the fourth on an RBI double by Shelley Duncan. Young’s two-run shot in the bottom of the inning made it 6-1.

Ordonez drove in another run with a double in the fifth, and Ryan Raburn’s double the same inning made it 8-2. Scherzer, who will start Game 3 of Detroit’s first-round playoff series, didn’t make it out of the sixth, allowing a two-out, two-run single by Jason Donald. Reliever Daniel Schlereth struck out Kosuke Fukudome with two outs and the bases loaded.

Cabrera homered in the bottom half, his 30th of the year. Cabrera reached 30 home runs for the fifth straight season and seventh time in his career.

Jim Thome hit an RBI double in the seventh, and after Raburn dropped a routine flyball in right for an error, Lonnie Chisenhall added a run-scoring single to make it 9-6.

The game was delayed 31 minutes at the start by rain.

Notes: Ordonez extended his hitting streak to 18 games. … Detroit’s Joaquin Benoit struck out the side in the eighth to set up Valverde. … The Tigers are 29-9 since Aug. 19. … In Wednesday night’s regular-season finale, the Tigers will send Rick Porcello (14-9) to the mound against Cleveland’s Zach McAllister (0-1). … Cleveland SS Asdrubal Cabrera didn’t play Tuesday, and Acta didn’t expect to play him Wednesday either. “Let’s see the young kids,” Acta said. “Let me see Jason Donald. I know what Cabrera can do.” … Detroit has 51 saves this season, tying a franchise record set by the 1984 team that won the World Series.

Police: 3 teen girls arrested after attacking woman with baseball bat

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

ELYRIA — Three teenage girls were sent to the Detention Home last night after they attacked an Elyria woman.

The girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, are charged with aggravated menacing, assault and violating a protection order.

According to a police report, the girls showed up at the woman’s Parmely Avenue home about 9 p.m. with another girl, who the woman knew only by her first name, and five males.

The teenagers, who were carrying a baseball bat, picked up the 37-year-old woman’s address sign and slammed it into the back window of her van and threw a brick at her neighbor’s house, the report said. Neither window was broken.

According to the report, the girls were believed to be looking for someone inside the woman’s home.

When the woman wouldn’t let them in the home, one of the girls punched her in the face, and she threw a punch back to defend herself, the report said.

The girls then took turns swinging the bat at the woman, but none of them were able to hit her, according to the report. After that, they all jumped on her, and she was knocked to the ground, the report said.

The woman told police the teens were upset due to a court case involving her niece.

The woman’s sister said that at least three of the four girls had shown up at her house earlier in the evening.

About 6:20 p.m., they went to her home, in the 800 block of West Avenue, and kicked her fence and threw rocks at her home when she would not allow her daughter to go out and fight them, according to a separate police report.

Tigers 14, Indians 0: Ubaldo Jimenez gets roughed up by Tigers again

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

DETROIT — Ubaldo Jimenez was acquired to help the Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers.

It hasn’t worked at all.

Starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez yesterday against the Detoit Tigers. (AP exchange.)

Starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez yesterday against the Detoit Tigers. (AP exchange.)

Monday, Jimenez allowed six runs in five innings as the Indians were routed 14-0 by Detroit in a game that means nothing to a pennant race that ended weeks ago.

Jimenez has faced Detroit four times since joining the Indians on July 31, losing three times. Including a start with the Rockies, he is 2-3 with a 6.35 ERA against the Tigers this season.

“Eventually, he’s going to have to figure them out,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “We see them 18 times a year.”
This time, Jimenez allowed 12 baserunners, including four extra-base hits.

“I was getting into hitter’s counts and they were taking advantage,” he said. “That’s a powerful lineup, and they’ve got guys who can hurt you on every pitch.”

Detroit had considered trading for Jimenez as well, but decided the Rockies wanted too much and dealt for Doug Fister instead.

The impact of the decision was obvious Monday. Fister (11-13) didn’t allow a runner until Asdrubal Cabrera’s two-out single in the fourth, and the Indians didn’t get a runner into scoring position until Ezequiel Carrera reached second on a single and an error with one out in the eighth.

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By that point, the Tigers led 6-0, and they still had an eight-run eighth to come.

“He works quick, he’s got a heavy sinker and a cutter,” Indians catcher Lou Marson said. “We had nothing for him, to be honest.”

Detroit’s choice of Fister over Jimenez has looked brilliant for six weeks. He and Justin Verlander, who are scheduled to start the first two games of Detroit’s first-round playoff series, are now a combined 14-0 with a 1.61 ERA in 16 appearances since August 16.

“I’ve never had anything like that before,” Leyland said. “14-0? Never.”

Fister, who allowed three singles while striking out nine, has been even better than the Cy Young favorite in the stretch, going 7-0 with a 0.65 ERA in his last eight outings. Fister, who was picked up in a six-player deal with Seattle on July 30, has now gone 20 innings without walking a batter.

“His command is amazing,” said catcher Alex Avila, who drove in three runs. “It’s easy to catch him, because he throws so many strikes. He’s putting everything where he wants it right now. It feels great going into the playoffs with two of the best pitchers in baseball right now.”

Victor Martinez, who has been to the postseason with Cleveland and Boston, thinks this might be his best chance at winning a World Series.

“It’s definitely a great feeling to be going into the playoffs like this,” he said. “With those two guys pitching like this, the rest of our pitchers and our lineup, we’ve got a chance to do some great things.”

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead on Ryan Raburn’s RBI triple in the second, then scored three times in the third. With one out, Will Rhymes singled. Jimenez retired Don Kelly, but Dmitri Young and Miguel Cabrera singled to make it 2-0. Martinez walked, loading the bases, and Alex Avila hit a two-run double.

By that point, Martinez had given the Tigers a 5-0 lead with an RBI double in the fifth, and then scored Detroit’s sixth run on Avila’s base hit.

The Tigers put the game away with nine hits in the eighth, highlighted by a long 3-run homer by Young, another midseason acquistion. Detroit’s first seven batters of the inning got hits before Omir Santos, hitting for Avila, struck out.

Notable

  • Third base umpire Manny Gonzalez was hit in the right shin by the barrel of Shelley Duncan’s broken bat on a fifth-inning groundout. Gonzalez was checked briefly by Tigers trainer Kevin Rand, but stayed in the game.
  • Indians reliever Corey Kluber, making his third career appearance, hit Kelly and Young with back-to-back pitches in the sixth inning, and nearly hit Kelly again in the eighth.

Twins 6, Indians 4: Tribe falls, but nostalgia wins

Monday, September 26th, 2011

CLEVELAND — The Indians did not leave Progressive Field with a bang, but the crowd of 22,539 certainly got its buck’s worth in Cleveland’s home finale Sunday.

Jim Thome doesn’t seem too worried Sunday despite  playing third base for the first time in almost 15 years. Then again, he was only in the field for one pitch as part of a special moment thought up by Tribe manager Manny Acta. (AP photo.)

Jim Thome doesn’t seem too worried Sunday despite playing third base for the first time in almost 15 years. Then again, he was only in the field for one pitch as part of a special moment thought up by Tribe manager Manny Acta. (AP photo.)

With a chance to secure a second-place standing in the Central Division and a .500 finish while sweeping Minnesota in the process, the Indians instead fell 6-4 in 10 innings.

Minnesota won it off reliever Tony Sipp, who allowed a pair of runs in the 10th, the first on a solo home run to Rene Tosoni with his third pitch.

But the result almost became an afterthought when, on “Fan Appreciation Day,” those in attendance got to see Indians legend Jim Thome make his first appearance at third base in nearly 15 years.

Manager Manny Acta concocted the idea and ran it by Thome, who began his big league career as Cleveland’s third baseman and was open to the notion.

“I just felt that if this is the end, at least with this franchise, it was proper that he end at third base,” Acta said of Thome, the Indians’ all-time leader with 337 home runs.

Thome, who returned to Cleveland in an August waiver wire trade with Minnesota, entered the game to a standing ovation as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning.

Relegated to designated hitter status since 2006 after years as a first baseman, Thome then left the dugout to man third in the ninth, as the crowd got louder in recognition. He was only there for one pitch before being replaced, leaving to cheers and beckoned back out of the dugout for a curtain call.

“It was fun to be out there,” said Thome, who took one warm-up grounder and made the throw across the diamond to first baseman Carlos Santana. “It was a nice gesture. To get that opportunity to be back out there, it felt good. It felt like old times.”

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Even in defeat, Cleveland was able to clinch second place in the division, thanks to a White Sox loss.

The Indians appeared to be in line for better when left fielder Shelley Duncan clouted a two-run home run to break a 2-2 tie in the third off Twins starter Liam Hendricks. But Minnesota got single runs in the fifth and sixth innings off Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona before beating Sipp in the 10th.

Carmona’s outing mirrored his inconsistent season performance. He allowed four runs on seven hits over 61⁄3 innings, surrendering two in the first before stringing together three scoreless innings.

The right-hander began the season as the Indians’ ace but finishes it as a question mark after going 7-15 with a 5.25 ERA in 32 starts. The Indians own a $7 million option next year on Carmona, who went 3-5 with a 4.59 ERA in 13 second-half starts after leaving the disabled list with a strained quadriceps.

“I had a lot of trouble in the first half,” said Carmona, who won just one of his final eight starts. “The second half was much better. I finished strong.”

If Thome’s career is finished, he went out on a nostalgic note, reaching the career 600-homer plateau this season and ending where he started — wearing an Indians uniform.

A strong candidate for the Hall of Fame, Thome has stated that he would make a decision on retirement this offseason, but he sounded as though his rare appearance at third base was not part of his big league swan song.

“I wouldn’t read into that too much,” said the 41-year-old Thome, who is at the tail end of his 21st season in the majors. “I still love to play. The percentage of me coming back next year is higher than me not coming back. Let’s just leave it at that.”

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