The Detroit Tigers began their three game series with the Cleveland Indians, Friday evening.

The 1st inning began with Daniel Norris pitching for Detroit and Trevor Bauer performing the duties for Cleveland. The inning was rather ho-hum with neither team performing any memorable plays and unable to score.

In the 2nd inning, Jose Iglesias managed to bring in Justin Upton by an infield single to the short-stop, making it a 1-0 game.

The Indians response was unimpressive, with Edwin Encarnacion grounding out to the shortstop along with Jose Ramirez and Yandy Diaz both striking out swinging.

The 3rd and 4th innings were scoreless.

Miguel Cabrera performed his magic at the top of the 5th, with a three run homer, bringing in Iglesias and Ian Kinsler making it a 4-0 game. The Indians were unable to respond, remaining scoreless.

The Tigers continued their rally in the 6th, with Avila hitting a homer to left-field bringing in Collins and making it a 6-0 game. It was at this point that the Indians decided to pull pitcher Trevor Bauer and bring in Nick Goody to the mound. He was able to keep the Tigers at bay, but the Indians failed to score when it came to their turn at bat.

The only action in the 7th inning was the fans standing from their seats for the 7th inning stretch and a pitching change for the Tigers, with Alex Wilson coming to the mound.

The 8th proved to be exciting. Detroit brought in Kyle Ryan to pitch and Cleveland relieved Goody of his duties and installed Dan Otero to manage the throws. The Indians were able to invade the Tigers “safe space” with Ryan failing to stun the Indians and loading the bases. Detroit saw the writing on the wall and brought in Justin Wilson to settle things down. However, Roberto Perez livened things up when he grounded out to second and Encarnacion came in to score. The game was now getting edgy with the bases loaded, two outs and a 6-1 game. Austin Jackson managed to walk but was left standing when Carlos Santana struck out swinging. The Tigers managed to keep their lead in the game, but not without the stress level rising.

The 9th arrived with another pitching change for the Tigers and Indians. Cleveland brought Bryan Shaw to the mound. Nicholas Castellanos doubled to left field bringing in Iglesias and making it a 7-1 game. Cabrera managed to walk, but Victor Martinez grounded into a double play putting Cabrera out at second. In the bottom of the 9th, Detroit brought William Cuevas to the mound with depressing results. Brandon Guyer got hit by a pitch, putting him on base. Diaz singled to center and Francisco Lindor scored making it a 7-2 game with bases loaded. Detroit searched the bullpen and found Francisco Rodriquez ready to take the mound. Unfortunately his efforts produced a grand slam homer hit by Lonnie Chisenhall, bringing in Guyer, Ramirez and Diaz. The scoreboard showed the grim reality of a 7-6 game. However, fate smiled upon the Tigers when Austin Jackson struck out swinging. The final score remained at 7-6 and the Tigers squeaked out a win.

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