Indians sputtering but nearing AL Central crown

TIGERS 5, INDIANS 4

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians’ sprint to another division title has turned into a crawl.

Andrew Miller gave up two RBI doubles in the seventh inning as Cleveland’s march to a third consecutive American League Central championship was slowed by the Detroit Tigers, who beat the Indians 5-4 on Friday night to end a 10-game losing streak at Progressive Field.

Miller, making his third appearance since coming off the disabled list, relieved Adam Cimber (0-2) in the seventh, but couldn’t stop the Tigers from snapping a 2-2 tie.

Jeimer Candelario, who homered in the first off Josh Tomlin, doubled home one run and Victor Martinez also doubled off Miller.

The loss prevented the Indians from clinching the division title, although Cleveland’s magic number dropped to one after Minnesota lost to Kansas City. Any celebrating remains on hold for at least another day. More importantly, the Indians dropped to 5-8 in September.

“But it’s a long season and guys go through things throughout the course of the season,” said Tomlin, the Indians’ longest-tenured player. “We’ve all seen it. We’re all just trying to get on the same page, just trying to play out style of baseball as much as we can. Once it clicks and once we get on a roll, it should be pretty good.”

Down 5-2, the Indians scored twice in the ninth against closer Shane Greene, who finally retired Francisco Lindor on a fly to right with the tying run at second.

Josh Donaldson homered and went 2 for 4 in his home debut for Cleveland, and Edwin Encarnacion connected for his 31st home run.

Drew VerHagen (3-2) got two outs in the sixth and Greene worked a shaky ninth for his 29th save.