Delluci’s late home run powers Indians’ victory

His eighth-inning roundtripper triggered the Tribe’s 6-3 win over the Tigers.

DETROIT (AP) — The Cleveland Indians took advantage of Detroit’s depleted bullpen.

David Dellucci’s tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning lifted Cleveland to a 6-3 win over the Tigers on Saturday.

Victor Martinez also hit a two-run home run and C.C. Sabathia tied for the league lead with his seventh victory to help the Indians beat Detroit for the second straight day, giving them a 11⁄2-game lead in the AL Central.

“We just want to keep winning and be there at the end,” Sabathia said. “They have a great ballclub, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were there at the end.”

Slim lead lost

Justin Verlander left the game with a 3-2 lead after six innings, but such slim leads aren’t as safe with relievers Bobby Seay and Jason Grilli filling in for injured standouts Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney.

“I don’t think they care too much,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

He’s right.

“That’s a good ballclub,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “For me, I don’t take it any further than that.”

Seay allowed Grady Sizemore’s one-out triple and Casey Blake followed with an RBI double in the seventh, making it 3-all.

Three-straight hits

The Indians led off the eighth inning with three straight hits off Grilli (2-2), who left the game after Ryan Garko’s comebacker hit his left knee, and built a three-run lead on Dellucci’s homer and Travis Hafner’s sacrifice fly.

X-rays on Grilli’s knee were negative.

“I’m not concerned about that,” Grilli said. “It was insult to injury. I was the goat today and I’m not happy about it.”

The Tigers aren’t pleased that two of their top relievers — and starter Kenny Rogers — are on the disabled list, but they’re not making excuses.

“We have some health issues, but so does everybody else,” Leyland said.

The Tigers put Rodney on the 15-day DL with biceps tendinitis Saturday, a blow for a bullpen already without Zumaya because of finger surgery.

“Do I feel the same about our bullpen as I do when I had Zumaya and Rodney? No, I don’t,” Leyland said. “But I thought we’d win that game today, but to their credit they beat us.”

Thames homers

Marcus Thames homered for the Tigers, who have lost three of their past five games.

Sabathia (7-1) allowed three runs and six hits over seven innings. He struck out six and walked one, helping him win his 88th career game — easily the most for any pitcher younger than 27.

“He’s been good all year, for that matter 21⁄2 years,” Wedge said.

Tom Mastny pitched the eighth, Joe Borowski followed for his AL-high 16th save in 18 chances.

Justin Verlander gave up two runs and three hits over six innings.

He has allowed three or fewer earned runs in all 10 of his starts, the longest streak to start a season by a Detroit pitcher since David Wells allowed three or fewer runs in his first 12 starts in 1993.

Rookie of the Year

The reigning AL Rookie of the Year left the game with a one-run lead, but Seay and Grilli blew his bid to win a fifth straight game.

Verlander insisted, however, that he hasn’t lost confidence in the bullpen replacements.

“We still have some good pitchers down there,” he said. “They’re struggling a little bit, but they’ll turn it around.”

Each team had the lead and there was a tie over the first four innings.

Thames’ shattered-bat homer sent the baseball nearly 400 feet to left and a shard of wood fluttered about 100 feet away from home plate, giving Detroit a 1-0 lead in the second.

“He’s got big-time power,” Leyland said.

The Indians went ahead 2-1 in the third on Martinez’s two-out, two-run homer.