Game 90: Indians 4, Tigers 3

The Indians continued to play excellent baseball, this time coming back to beat to Justin Verlander and the Tigers 4-3. Today it was the Indians' much-maligned defense which kept them in the game early, giving them the opportunity to win the game in the later innings.

The first defensive gem came from Shelley Duncan, a guy who isn't in the lineup for his defense, and who was making a rare start in right field. With Austin Jackson at first to lead off the game, Magglio Ordonez sliced a line drive towards the right field corner, but Duncan ran over and dived to make an excellent catch. If he doesn't catch that ball, the Tigers would have scored another run in the first inning, and given another out to work with, maybe more. Andy Marte then made the play of the game, turning a rocket by Miguel Cabrera into a double play. Marte lunged to his right to snare the one-hop shot, performed graceful spin to get in throwing position, and made a perfect throw to second base to double up Cabrera. The final gem of the inning came when Brandon Inge doubled in the third run of the first inning; Trevor Crowe and Jason Donald made two perfect throws to nail Carlos Guillen trying to score from third. Those three plays got Carmona through the first, and if any one of them was not made, perhaps the game get put out of reach early, and the Indians have to go to their bullpen early in game one of a doubleheader.

After the first, Carmona continued to struggle with command, but muddled through seven innings, and by the time he left the game the Indians had taken the lead. The offense also had an excellent outing, as they pestered Justin Verlander all game, never quite getting the big hit off of the fireballer but pushing him into an early exit with patient at-bats. Verlander repulsed a rally in the fifth by striking out Travis Hafner and Matt LaPorta with the bases loaded, but he had to throw a lot of pitches to get out that inning, and would last just one more frame before handing the ball off to the Tigers' bullpen, but not before giving up the lead thanks to a wild pitch in the sixth. The Indians would take advantage of his exit, scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh off of Phil Coke when Matt LaPorta doubled and Trevor Crowe singled him in, both hits coming with two outs.

The Cleveland bullpen shone again, not allowing a leadoff double to score in the eighth. Joe Smith got Magglio Ordonez to ground to third (Andy Marte making another fine play keeping Damon at second) and striking out Cabrera. Rafael Perez then came in to retire the left-handed Brennan Boesch to end the threat. Chris Perez, who will be closing games for now with Kerry Wood on the DL, walked a man but otherwise retired the Tigers in the ninth.

via www.fangraphs.com