Tigers 6, Indians 4: Holy crap the Tigers won the series

Strong performances from Francisco Liriano and Jim Adduci propelled Detroit to a rare road series win in Cleveland today, as the Tigers defeated the American League Central champion Cleveland Indians, 6-4.

The Tigers offense exploded for four runs against Shane Bieber in the fifth inning after the team went down 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Christin Stewart knocked in Victor Reyes and Jim Adduci slammed a three-run home run. Meanwhile, in the eighth inning, Mikie Mahtook knocked his eighth home run of the year off of Andrew Miller. Every Tiger in the starting lineup except for Nicholas Castellanos and Victor Reyes notched a run in this one, and Adduci finished with an impressive four RBIs.

Francisco Liriano was impressive today to follow up his two most recent performances, a six-inning outing in which he allowed zero runs to the Houston Astros and a five-inning win against the Chicago White Sox. He ran into some trouble in the fourth inning as he allowed two runs, but he faced the minimum in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. He finished going seven innings and posting seven strikeouts while allowing three earned runs on five hits, two walks.

One thing to note: the Indians rested most of their starters today. Josh Donaldson did bat third, but aside from Donaldson, this was a B-list lineup from Cleveland today after yesterday’s blowout. Regardless, it was nice to see Liriano and the Tigers pull off an unexpected road series win, even if the team is in a race for the third overall draft pick.