Indians 7, Tigers 4: Poor pitching proves costly as Cleveland clinches AL Central in Detroit

The Tigers had a chance at a win, despite Buck Farmer's mediocre start. The offense, while not on fire, still put up a fight, but the bullpen failures led to a 7-4 loss. The Tigers watched as the Indians clinched the American League Central Division on their own turf, as their losing streak climbs to three games.

Well, the pitching did it again. More specifically, didn't keep the runs off the board. Sure, the offense wasn't so hot, and there were missed opportunities, but when your pitching gives up seven runs (including two homers) it's not going to work anyway. At some point, the pitching staff has to do its job, and for the last several games some combination hasn't gotten it done.

With Buck Farmer, there's only so much to expect, given he's been spot starting for a duct taped starting rotation. It was expected that the team would see the bullpen early in the game, but he at least kept it to four runs in five innings of work. The major damage was with the two-run homer he gave up in the first, and he wasn't awful for the rest of his start. Kyle Ryan's first appearance since Sept. 15 wasn't all that bad, either.

Where it all went wrong was with the Wilsons. Justin gave up a home run and walked a batter in the seventh, and Alex allowed two runs on three hits in his inning, though one was unearned from a fielding error by J.D. Martinez. But the little mistakes add up and what could've been a 4-4 tie was instead a 7-4 deficit headed to the bottom of the ninth. The offense, meanwhile, continued to attempt a comeback, but despite outhitting the Indians, their efforts got them nowhere.

ROARS:

Miguel Cabrera: Drove in two runs and finished 2-for-4, both singles.

J.D. Martinez's bat: Knocked a two-run bomb out into the Belle Tire tunnel to tie the game at the time.

HISSES:

Buck Farmer: It could've been worse, but it still was nowhere good enough. Four runs and a two-run homer isn't going to cut it in a pennant race with less than a week to go.

Alex and Justin Wilson: They gave up three runs, including a homer.

STATS AND REACTIONS:

WIN PROBABILITY GRAPH:

Source: FanGraphs