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Diaz's RBI single wins it in the ninth | |||||||||||||
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CLEVELAND (AP) – The Cleveland Indians won Friday night despite poor baserunning and a botched squeeze play. So Detroit manager Phil Garner was understandably exasperated after the Tigers made even more mistakes and lost 5-4 as Einar Diaz's bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth barely got beyond diving shortstop Deivi Cruz. "This may have been the worst game we've played," Garner said after watching center fielder Juan Encarnacion drop an easy fly ball, a popup fall safely between two fielders for a double, and two other Cleveland hits skim off Tigers' gloves. "There sure were a lot of mistakes," Indians manager Charlie Manuel said. "We were fortunate to win." With the score tied at 4, Diaz grounded his single off Todd Jones up the middle. The ball went to the left of second base, just out of Cruz's reach. Juan Gonzalez singled off C.J. Nitkowski (0-1) to open the Indians' ninth. After Jim Thome struck out, Jones relieved and yielded a bloop single to Ellis Burks that sent Gonzalez to second. "I'm going to ask Ellis tomorrow if he's going to accept that one," Jones said. "He just fought off a good pitch, fisted it out there." Pinch-hitter Jacob Cruz walked to load the bases, and Russell Branyan struck out before Diaz singled. "Tonight was not a good night to be a pitcher," Jones said. Bob Wickman (1-0) got the final two outs in the top of the ninth for the win. Gonzalez had three hits against his former team, including a popup that dropped between Cruz and leftfielder Bobby Higginson. "My fault," Higginson said. "The whole game was ugly." Tony Clark hit a two-run homer and Encarnacion added a solo shot for Detroit, both off Chuck Finley. Clark's third homer, a line shot over the wall in center, tied it at 3 in the sixth. Encarnacion hit his second homer leading off the third. It took the Indians four batters and 18 pitches to get more production off Tigers starter Steve Sparks than they got in a 1-0 loss to the knuckleballer April 14 in Detroit. Kenny Lofton drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a groundout by Omar Vizquel. One out later, Gonzalez lined an RBI double off the top of the left-field wall. Encarnacion's embarrassing error in the third helped Cleveland score two unearned runs. "We didn't lose tonight, we gave it to them," Garner said. With two outs and Vizquel on third, Gonzalez lofted a routine fly to center that Encarnacion simply dropped. Vizquel jogged home to make it 2-1 and Gonzalez went to second on the play. "I told (Encarnacion), 'If you're going to botch it, at least pick it up and throw him out,"' Garner said. "Don't let him go to second, too." After Thome walked, Burks hit an RBI single. Robert Fick put Detroit ahead 4-3 in the seventh with an RBI double. Cleveland tied it in the eighth on Lofton's RBI single, a one-hop shot that glanced off Nitkowski's glove and scored pinch-runner Jolbert Cabrera and sent Branyan to third. With Vizquel up, Branyan broke for home on a squeeze play. Vizquel swung away, however, and popped out to short. "I don't know what I was thinking," Vizquel said. "I saw the sign, but still swung. I was in a whole mess tonight." Earlier, Vizquel took Cleveland out of another possible rally. With runners on first and third and Roberto Alomar at bat in the sixth, Vizquel suddenly broke for second before pitcher Heath Murray was even in his windup. Vizquel was tagged for the third out. Game notesFinley allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings in his 40th career start against the Tigers. ... Sparks gave up seven hits and three runs, one earned, in 5 1-3 innings. ... Detroit had two runners caught stealing and is 8-for-18 in steal attempts this season. ... Murray has worked four hitless innings against Cleveland this season. ... Thome did not put the ball in play in five at-bats, walking three times and striking out twice, lowering his average to .128 (6-for-47).  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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