Detroit swept by Indians as Cabrera goes on 10-day DL
CLEVELAND >> Logan Allen knows that if he or any of the Indians other starters get into any trouble, help is just a phone call away.
Cleveland’s bullpen has been stellar.
“Unbelievable,” he said.
Allen recovered from a bumpy first inning to get his first win with Cleveland and the Indians leaned on their strong bullpen to complete a three-game sweep Sunday with a 5-2 win over the Detroit Tigers, who could be without slugger Miguel Cabrera for a while.
Allen (1-1) found his rhythm after hitting a batter on his second pitch and walking two in the first. He hung around and allowed just one run and two hits in five innings. The lefthander, who came to Cleveland in a deal around the 2019 trading deadline, won a rotation job after a strong camp in Arizona.
After Allen left, four Cleveland relievers — Bryan Shaw, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase — worked an inning each to finish off the Tigers.
Karinchak struck out the side in the eighth and Clase, throwing over 100 mph on seven pitches, worked the ninth for his second save.
Jake Bauers and César Hernández drove in early runs against José Ureña (02), who had more control issues. The right-hander has given up nine walks in 7 2/3 innings this season.
Leading 3-2, the Indians scored two insurance runs in the eighth helped by two throwing errors charged to Tigers right fielder Nomar Mazara.
Wilson Ramos homered for Detroit, which scored just six runs in the series and lost both Cabrera and starter Julio Teheran to injuries.
For the first time this season, Cabrera wasn’t in the middle of Detroit’s lineup. The 11-time All-star was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game with a left biceps strain that was affecting his sweet swing. The four-time AL batting champion has been dealing with soreness in the muscle for a while. But after he felt it “grab” while making a swing in Saturday’s game, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told Cabrera to take some time off and get it examined.
Without Cabrera, the Tigers didn’t have a dependable bat in their order, but Hinch refused to use his absence as an excuse.
“For us, the lesson coming away from today was the big, critical at-bats for them ended in contact and runs and we had a lot of at-bats that ended up in swing and miss,” he said. “They won those at-bats by putting the ball in play and giving themselves a chance. That to me was a big separator.”