Jahmai Jones, Wenceel Perez and Riley Greene all hit solo homers in the first four innings as the visiting Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 on Thursday night, moving into a first-place tie in the American League Central Division.
Cleveland (86-73) owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Detroit (86-73) with three games remaining. The Tigers are in possession of the third and final AL wild-card position, one ahead of the Houston Astros (85-74).
Detroit salvaged the final game of a three-game series and snapped an eight-game losing streak.
Jones’ leadoff homer in the first occurred two batters before Perez’s shot. Greene belted his 36th of the season in the fourth against Guardians starter Parker Messick (3-1) to extend Detroit’s lead to 4-1.
Brant Hurter (4-3) earned the win with 1 1/3 innings of relief as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch went with a bullpen game. Will Vest struck out the side in the ninth for his 22nd save in 29 chances.
Six Detroit pitchers combined on a five-hitter with Troy Melton working the first 3 2/3, giving up a run on two hits with two walks and one strikeout.
Jose Ramirez and C.J. Kayfus each had RBI doubles for Cleveland, which lost for just the third time in its last 20 games and is 18-6 in September. The Guardians’ magic number for clinching a playoff berth is two.
Ramirez drove in Austin Hedges in the eighth to pull the Guardians within 4-2, establishing a franchise record with his 726th career extra-base hit. He had been tied with Hall of Famer Earl Averill.
Javier Baez added an RBI single in his return to the Detroit lineup after missing two games with a stiff neck. The Tigers snapped an eight-game losing streak and are 2-11 since Sept. 11.
Messick gave up four runs on six hits, ending Cleveland’s franchise-record stretch of 19 games without a starter allowing more than two runs. The left-hander struck out seven and walked one in his seventh outing in the majors.
If the regular season ended today, the Guardians would host Detroit in the best-of-three first round of the postseason. Both Central contenders hold tiebreakers over the Astros.
