Led by Cody Anderson, Indians break through to beat Verlander, Tigers, 4-0

DETROIT For most of the day Sunday, Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander looked like his old self again against the Indians. Verlander took a no-hitter into fifth inning and looked to be barely breaking a sweat even as the temperature neared 90 degrees.

Eventually the Indians’ offense unlike so many times in the past finally got to him and did enough to support Cody Anderson, who turned in a strong performance of his own, to beat the Tigers, 4-0, on Sunday at Comerica Park.

Abraham Almonte broke up Verlander’s no-hit bid in the fifth with a triple to dead center field that was almost reeled in by Tigers center fielder Anthony Gose. An inning later, the Indians did some damage.

Michael Martinez, getting the start in left field while Michael Brantley acted as the designated hitter, singled to left and Jason Kipnis followed with a single on a play that was nearly a double play. Kipnis hit a hard ground ball to Tigers (62-74) second baseman Andrew Romine, who flipped it to shortstop Dixon Machado. Martinez had taken off on the pitch and slid into second just before the ball got to Machado. On his throw to first, then, Kipnis was originally called out in a bang-bang play but had the call overturned after the Indians (66-69) challenged the play.

Instead of two outs, the Indians had none and two runners on. Francisco Lindor squared around to bunt in an effort to put two runners in scoring position on a day in which runners were hard to come by. He fouled off one pitch, failing to get it down and then squared around a second time but pulled it back for a ball.

Indians manager Terry Francona yelled from the dugout for Lindor to swing freely. He made it count, ripping a triple to right-center field and giving the Indians a 2-0 lead.

“I looked to the dugout and he told me to hit,” Lindor said. “1/8Francona3/8 gave me some freedom for me to go hit, and that’s what I did.”

Two batters later, Carlos Santana made it 3-0 with a single to center field.

Martinez (3-for-4) added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with an RBI single up the middle off of Tigers relief pitcher Neftali Feliz, making it 4-0.

Anderson (3-3) had his best outing since his first four after being called up, throwing seven scoreless innings and allowing two hits while striking out three. He also twice worked out of a no-out situation with two runners on, both times inducing a ground ball to escape trouble with one of them coming with the always dangerous Miguel Cabrera at the plate.

“Oh man, I loved it,” Francona said of Anderson’s outing. “They had a couple chances. Anytime you have first and second and nobody out and Miggy is coming to the plate, that’s a formula where they really hurt you. He made some really good pitches and he threw the ball down in the zone where he induced the ground balls where our guys could turn double plays. I thought he was tremendous.”

The Indians have talked about Anderson needing to keep the ball down, something he hasn’t done when he’s struggled.

“I think anybody’s capable of doing this when they keep the ball down,” Anderson said. “It’s just a matter of how many times you can do it.”

Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen worked scoreless innings to close out the game and the series.

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