Detroit Tigers earn rare complete victory; down Cleveland Indians

The Detroit Tigers earned a rare victory Saturday night, downing the Cleveland Indians to pick up just their fourth victory in their last 14 tries. What was more rare was that it was accomplished with a true team effort as the Tigers held the Indians to just three hits in the 6-0 shutout.

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The Tigers received timely offense, including J.D. Martinez‘s 35th homer of the game, sharp pitching from Alfredo Simon, and solid defense as exhibited by a nifty diving catch by Rajai Davis.

Facing Danny Salazar, one of the reasons for the Indians’ turnaround in the second half, the Tigers went fairly quietly through the first two innings. A flukey play allowed them to score their first run when James McCann hit the ball of the foot of Salazar and it caromed just over the glove of shortstop Francisco Lindor to score the first run in the third inning.

In the next inning, J.D. Martinez hit a two-run shot that just cleared the fence in the deepest part of right-center to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Tyler Collins hit his third homer of the year for the big league club and it was an opposite field shot. Davis followed this up with a triple and he was singled home by Ian Kinsler. That chased Salazar, who experienced the quickest outing of his season (3.2 innings)

Simon had allowed 14 runs over his last two games, but Saturday’s outing resembled more of his one-hit complete game shutout back on August 20, as he held Cleveland without a hit through five innings. His final line was seven innings, allowing no runs on two hits with four walks and five strikeout.

Alex Wilson and Bruce Rondon pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth inning respectively.

The Tigers will look for the series victory as they send a red-hot Justin Verlander to the mound on Sunday afternoon. The Indians will counter with Cody Anderson. Game time is 1:08 at Comerica Park.

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