WELLINGTON — Mother Nature may have finally cooled things down, but the Charlie Daniels Band definitely turned up the heat Monday night for the nearly sold-out Lorain County Fair grandstand.

In case fans didn’t know what to expect, the Mount Joliet, Tenn., artist kicked off the evening with a crowd pleaser and his calling card “Redneck Fiddlin’ Man,” which showcased this virtuoso fiddler’s legendary skills. While perhaps positioned as an old-school, country-rock artist, Daniels and his band kept things modern with a slick guitar solo and heavy jamming.

After keeping up the momentum with “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,” a quintessential Daniels quick-vocal, honky tonk romp, the bearded singer addressed the crowd:

“I do believe it’s boogie woogie time in the Buckeye State.”

Up next was the bluesy “Legend of Wooley Swamp,” featuring Daniels’ booming voice that made the scary tale seem perfect for Halloween campfires.

Swapping his fiddle for a guitar, Daniels showed off his sensitive side with the easygoing “Saddle Tramp.”

The seven-piece act launched into an unexpected bluesy, jazzy jam that if you closed your eyes, you would swear the Allman Brothers Band was on stage.

As impressive as this display was, there seemed to be a segment of the audience caught off guard. The fair folk wanted to sing along, not hear a jam, but it was quite a highlight.

In the middle of a handful of dates on the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert Tour across the country, Daniels didn’t let the evening go by without talking politics. The outspoken artist easily riled up the audience. After quick banter regarding America being the best country in the world, the 73-year-old talked about a television commercial where a woman is attacked in her home and calls the security company.

“There are some things we don’t need to put up with,” Daniels said. “For instance – violent crime. It’s always the same people year after year. All we have to do is get rid of those people. I have some ideas how about going about doing that. For instance, just one time in that commercial I wish instead of picking up that phone, she picked up a .357. Pow! End of problem.”

He quickly launched into his redneck-friendly “Simple Man.”

Out of that track he paid tribute to the troops, recited the “Pledge of Allegiance” and then went right into fast-paced “If You Never Did Think It Would Happen Again.” The audience ate it up and wanted more.

Luckily for them, Daniels wasn’t done. Having just released his new album “Land That I Love,” a compilation of patriotic songs he’s cut over the decades, the North Carolina native performed his updated version of “What This World Needs is a Few More Rednecks,” which was originally released in 1990.

Even though the country music icon has been performing professionally for more than 50 years, he continues to attract new fans, younger fans and not because of his popular Geico insurance commercial.

“I love country music, I’ve seen him at least five times,” said Avon resident Bri Spier, 28. “If he’s close by to here, I’m in. I think it’s the fiddle sound that makes him so popular. At least that’s what I know him mostly for.”

Her boyfriend Josh Armbrecht, 26, also of Avon, concurred.

“I love his fiddle playing and his sound,” he said.

Daniels ended with his signature tune “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” leaving fans young and old playing air fiddle and humming their way home.

Contact John Benson at ndiffrence@att.net.

DETROIT — Will Rhymes gave yet another reason why the Detroit Tigers should be happy about their prospects for the future.
One day after Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch became the first pair of Detroit rookies to reach 100 hits in a season since Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell, it was Rhymes’ turn to take the stage.
Rhymes, in the lineup while Carlos Guillen recovers from a knee injury, had a hit and scored a run in each of the first three innings. He finished with a career-best four hits as the Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians with an 8-1 victory Sunday.
“I got lucky in my first at-bat, and after that, I was feeling comfortable,” Rhymes said. “My job is to go out there, play hard, run hard and get on base for the guys who get paid to drive us in. That’s all I’m doing.”
Detroit outscored the Indians 19-3 in the lopsided weekend series, gaining a measure of revenge for a four-game sweep in Cleveland last month.
“I think this was a bit of payback — we got them at our place and now they swept us here,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta. “We were just overwhelmed by their pitching here. We couldn’t do anything in any of the games.”
After strong performances by Armando Galarraga and Max Scherzer in the first two games, Justin Verlander (14-8) finished the weekend by allowing one run in eight innings.
“We’re all competitive guys — we wouldn’t be at this level if we weren’t — so you want to go out there and one-up the last guy,” Verlander said. “Everyone’s pitching well, so you don’t want to be the one that goes out there and ends the streak.”
The Tigers have had two three-game winning streaks and a three-game losing streak in their last nine games.
“It seems like we were clicking on all cylinders this weekend,” Verlander said. “If we can keep this up for the rest of the season … well, never say never. It’s a funny game.”
The Indians finished a six-game road trip to Kansas City and Detroit with just one win and are a season-worst 24 games under .500 (50-74).
Verlander (14-8), who has struggled with high pitch counts early in games this season, didn’t throw his 100th pitch Sunday until the eighth inning.
“He’s one of the best young pitchers out there, and today he showed why,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “He used all of his pitches, got ahead of the hitters and pretty dominated the game.”
Cleveland led 1-0 after Shin-Soo Choo’s homer in the first, but Detroit chased rookie Jeanmar Gomez with eight runs in the first three innings.
Detroit’s quick start was aided by a pair of failed intentional walks in the first two innings. In the first, after Miguel Cabrera’s RBI single, Acta walked Brennan Boesch to load the bases for former Indian Jhonny Peralta, who answered with a two-run single.
“I wouldn’t have walked him with two out, but with one out, I was just trying to get the kid out of the inning with a double play,” Acta said. “He just couldn’t make the pitch.”
In the next inning, Acta walked Cabrera to pitch to Boesch, again with the bases loaded. This time, Boesch hit a two-run double, followed by Peralta’s sacrifice fly, but Acta didn’t doubt his strategy.
“When it is Cabrera, I’ll walk him any time — I don’t care what inning it is,” he said. “That’s the best hitter in the American League, and I didn’t want to see what kind of damage he was going to do to us.”
Rhymes and Johnny Damon added RBI singles in the third to make it 8-1. Neither team scored in the final six innings.
Gomez (3-2) left after the third, having allowed as many runs as he had in his first five starts combined. Seven of the eight runs were earned, to go along with 11 hits and three walks.
“You can’t expect a kid to have his best stuff every time, and today, Gomez’s slider was flat,” Acta said. “That’s going to happen.”
NOTES: The crowd of 35,104 moved the Tigers’ season attendance to 2,004,237 — the sixth straight year that they have surpassed 2 million fans and the 13th time in franchise history. … Jayson Nix made the defensive play of the game, catching Don Kelly’s foul pop before flipping over a railing and landing on his head in a camera area at the end of the Tigers dugout. Nix hung on despite the rough landing and was uninjured. Nix had reached deep into the same part of the dugout to catch another Kelly popup earlier in the game. … Indians OF Michael Brantley missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle and remains day to day.

ELYRIA — A Lorain man has been indicted on aggravated vehicular homicide, DUI and other charges in a July crash that killed another Lorain man.

Michael Meeks, 23, is accused of hitting a scooter ridden by Thomas Gault, 46, on July 4 with his 2001 Ford Explorer on Elyria Avenue in Lorain. Gault died the next day.

Police have said that Meeks fled the scene and when he was caught by police he had a blood al-cohol level of .171, more than twice the legal driving limit of .08.

Read Friday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bruce Chen was hardly fine. Thanks to the Kansas City hitters, he didn’t need to be so sharp.

Yuniesky Betancourt homered and drove in three runs, leading Chen and the Royals over the Cleveland Indians 9-7 Wednesday night.

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Betancourt had a two-run single in the fourth inning and hit his 12th homer, which is career high, in the sixth as the Royals took a 9-4 lead. He has hit .421 with 10 RBIs in his past 11 games.

Mitch Maier hit a two-run triple and Billy Butler also drove in a pair of runs for Kansas City. Gregor Blanco added two doubles.

It was the Royals’ highest-scoring game since a 10-3 win over St. Louis on June 27.

“Every bit of the order we had offensive production,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “All and up down the lineup it was a good night offensively. Bruce did a pretty good job and got us into the sixth. His command fluctuated a little bit, but he did enough to get the big out when he needed.”

Chen (8-6) benefited from the Royals’ offensive splurge to win for the third time in four August starts. He gave up four runs on 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings.

“Both teams were swinging the bats real well.” Chen said. “I tried to make good pitches and pound the strike zone. Luckily, I was able to minimize the damage so we could win. I was making good pitches when I needed.”

Chen went 1-13 with three big league clubs from 2006-09 and missed the 2008 season after elbow surgery.

“I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I’ve never given up. I feel like I’m having a good year. I like playing this game. I feel like I can keep pitching at this level.”

Fausto Carmona (11-11) fell to 1-4 in his past five starts. He allowed seven runs on nine hits, a walk and a hit batter in five innings.

“The problem tonight was getting the ball up,” Carmona said. “I gave up a lot of base hits on sinkers. Every pitch was up — the sinker, the changeup, the slider. I got a couple of ground balls with the sinker, but they were hit where nobody could catch them. Everything was up.”

Joakim Soria gave up a single and walk in the ninth, but held on for his 35th save, which ties for the American League lead, in 37 opportunities.

More photos below.

Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo each had three hits and drove in two runs for Cleveland.

Choo’s double in the three-run eighth scored Michael Brantley and Cabrera, trimming the Royals’ lead to 9-7. The Indians had 17 hits, but stranded 11 runners.

“Hits don’t win games,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “Hits with runners in scoring position win games. We put up a fight at the end but it was not enough. Sometimes you get less than that and score more. It’s been a struggle for us. It’s not how many hits you get, it’s how many runs you score, but we scored enough runs. We just didn’t pitch well.”

Shelley Duncan led off the Indians’ second with his seventh home run, snapping an 0-for-19 slump. Chris Gimenez’s double in the sixth scored Jayson Nix and Jason Donald.

Billy Butler grounded into his major league-leading 26th double play in the third inning, tying a Royals single season record. John Wathan grounded into 26 double plays in 1982.

Notes

• Kansas State basketball coach Frank Martin threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
• OF Jai Miller, who appeared in one big league game June 22, 2008, with the Florida Marlins, joined the Royals after his promotion from Triple-A Omaha, where he hit .365 with six home runs and 15 RBIs in his past 14 games.
• DH Travis Hafner, who had two hits and two walks Tuesday, was not in the Indians lineup Wednesday. “It’s a planned day off against a lefty,” Acta said. “We’ll play him the next four games.”
• The Indians plan to promote blue-chip pitching prospect Carlos Carrasco soon from Triple-A Columbus. “He is a September callup and we may want to look at him before then, maybe later this month,” Acta said. “I’m anxious to take a look at him. He’s definitely a part of our future.” He is 10-5 with a 3.71 ERA in 23 International League starts.