Cleveland 5 - Detroit 4 (10 inn.) ? Michael Brantley drilled a game-winning homer with two outs in the 10th, snapping Cleveland?s 4-game skid and Detroit?s red-hot streak. Brantley got a full-count hanger from Al Alburquerque with two outs, and rammed it into the right-field seats, building on his breakout year with his first walk-off bomb.
For the hosts, a loss would have cut deeply, due to the foe and the fashion. Cleveland lost the division by one game last year, largely because the Bengals mauled them by 15-4 in the season series. Tigers starter Drew Smyly represented an extra hurdle, as Cleveland came in 4-11 against lefty starters, and last in BA and OPS against southpaws. They worked Smyly hard and drove him out after five innings, 110 pitches, but they left nine on base against him and led just 3-1.
Corey Kluber was sharp through the 6th, handling all but Detroit?s two best with ease. But the lead slipped away in the 7th against the bottom half, with doubles by Alex Avila and Rajai Davis. Cleveland scratched back ahead in their half, with rookie Jesus Aguilar?s second RBI. Miguel Cabrera?s third hit opened the 8th and knocked out Kluber, but Brian Shaw cleaned that up. After their own two-out threat produced only two more strandees, Cody Allen came on for the save. But he threw a dead-straight fastball to pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez, who drove it beyond Michael Bourn?s reach for a tying home run, his first Tigers tater. Two Cleveland singles made a one-out jam for Joba Chamberlain in the home half, but Mike Aviles put a cherry on his 0-for-5 night with a tailor-made DP ball, stranding their 14th runner.
Scott Atchison navigated Miggy and Victor Martinez in the 10th, and Alburquerque got two quick outs against Cleveland?s top of the order. Then Brantley, the team leader in home runs and RBI. When he spat on a 2-2 slider and fouled off a full-count fastball, it seemed Alburquerque might let him stroll, and take the platoon edge against Ryan Raburn. But Al-Al has changed his past walk-prone ways, for better and for worse, and he came in with a high slider strike that was catnip to Brantley.
V-Mart rocked his 11th, but the #1-2 men went 1-for-10 and were never on base when he big boys came up.
Brantley?s 9 HRs are one short of his career high. His best slugging mark is .402, but he?s at .522 now.
Al-Al walked or hit one of every six batters over his first three seasons. So far this year, he?s slashed his freebie rate by two-thirds, 4 walks out of 76 batters. But there is a trade-off, his opponents? BA rising from .176 to .254. This would have been a spot to bury the slider and not sweat the walk; but that nuance might escape a pitcher whose entire big-league career has been threatened by control problems.
from HighHeatStats
