Indians Confidential

The red-hot Indians continue to put the heat on 3rd place Detroit, and Monday night in Comerica Park they flexed their muscles for a couple homer homers in a 4-3 win that took 10 innings.  The game-winner came in the 10th as Franklin Gutierrez hit a solo homer for the win to give the Indians their 8th straight victory.  Grady Sizemore hit two homers to join the 30-30 club, just the second player to have 30 homers and 30 steals ever in a season for the Tribe (Joe Carter in 87 was the other).

Sizemore is the first American League player to join the 30-30 club since Alfonso Soriano did it for Texas in 2005.  The Indians built a 3-1 lead after scoring single runs in the 1st, 3rd and 4th innings to give starter Zach Jackson a cushion.  He gave the runs back to the Tigers as Edgar Renteria hit a solo homer in the 5th and then Brandon Inge singled in a run in the 7th to make it 3-3.

Jackson went 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, striking out six and allowing two homers.  Four other Indians pitchers held the Tigers in check, as Masa Kobayashi, Rafael Perez, Brenden Donnelly and Jensen Lewis combined to go 3.2 innings, allowing no runs on two hits, walking one and striking out two.

The win means the Indians are now just a half game out of third in the AL Central at 63-67, the Tigers are now 64-67.  They have their ace going on Tuesday as Cliff Lee looks for win #19 as he takes on former Cardinals first-round draft pick Chris Lambert (first start) at 7:05pm.