The Indians might just be the Tigers’ Achilles’ heel this season. Entering Tuesday’s game, the Indians were 2-18 in their last 20 road games. They hadn’t won a series since taking two of three from Detroit on July 24-26. And they hadn’t won a series outside of Progressive Field since a four-game series on June 28-July 1 in Baltimore.
But despite the Tigers having just swept the American League Central-leading White Sox, the Indians came into Comerica Park and took the series with a 3-2 win Tuesday night and put themselves in position to sweep Wednesday.
The win makes Cleveland 9-5 against Detroit on the season. It’s one of only two AL clubs the Tribe has a winning record against (5-4 against the Angels). And now, the Indians also have taken four of five series from the Tigers in 2012.
“It’s crazy this year. For some reason, some way, we seem to play a little bit better against Detroit,” starter Justin Masterson said. “I think the guys feel it. If we could carry that over to every game it might have worked out a little bit better early in the season.”
Perhaps the team does feel it, but manager Manny Acta said he doesn’t think the Indians have Detroit’s number. Acta said that despite how poorly they played in August, the Indians always manage to give the Tigers a good series.
“You can’t pick and choose who you play well against,” Acta said. “We want to play well against everybody. It happened that we have gotten good pitching when we played them and have played them well.”
That good pitching Tuesday came from Masterson, who in his past six starts had either been great or terrible. Three starts were excellent, as he allowed three runs in 19 2/3 innings. And three were miserable, as he allowed 22 runs in 13 2/3 innings.
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