Indians pound on Tigers in 13-6 win
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians hit four home runs, including one in each of the first three innings, and outscored the Detroit Tigers 13-6 on Saturday at Progressive Field.
Jose Ramirez was 4-for-4 with two home runs and six RBIs. Carlos Santana had three hits, including a home run and four RBIs, for Cleveland. Justin Upton had three hits, including a home run and three RBIs, for Detroit.
The score doesn't indicate it, but the game was a matchup of each team's ace, Cleveland's Corey Kluber versus Detroit's Justin Verlander. Both pitchers took their lumps.
Verlander in four innings gave up 11 runs, matching his career high. Kluber in 6 1/3 innings gave up six runs. Kluber got the win, Verlander the loss. Both pitchers are now 1-1.
Verlander came into the game with a career record vs. Cleveland of 19-21, his most losses against any opponent in the majors.
The Indians wasted no time going to work against him. Ramirez hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Santana hit a two-run homer in the second and Lonnie Chisenhall hit a two-run homer in the third, giving Cleveland an early 7-0 lead.
Kluber stumbled briefly in the fourth, giving up four hits, including a homer by Upton, cutting the Cleveland lead to 7-3.
Detroit added a run in the fifth to make it 7-4, but a two-out, two-run double by Santana in the bottom of the fifth gave the Indians a 9-4 lead.
In the seventh, the Tigers got RBI singles by Miguel Cabrera and Upton off reliever Andrew Miller, though the runs were charged to Kluber, and it was a three-run game at 9-6.
But Cleveland scored four more runs in the bottom of the eighth, three on Ramirez's second home run of the game.
NOTES: The Tigers have optioned RHP William Cuevas to Triple-A Toledo and recalled RHP Warwick Saupold from Toledo. ... The Tigers have hit at least one home run in each of their first 11 games of the season. Prior to the Tigers, the last American League team to homer in its first 11 games of the season was Tampa Bay, which homered in its first 12 games in 2007. ... OF Lonnie Chisenhall's pinch-grand slam in the ninth inning of Friday's game was the first by an Indians player since Jerry Sands hit one on Aug. 8, 2015 vs. Minnesota. ... Cleveland RHP Carlos Carrasco will start Sunday. It will be Carrasco's first start vs. Detroit since Sept. 17 when Detroit 2B Ian Kinsler hit a line drive back to the mound on Carrasco's second pitch of the game, breaking Carrasco's right hand.