Woo Hoo! Homer barrage has Indians pulling away

Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez,
Ryan Garko and Franklin Gutierrez all took the Tigers deep.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Above his locker, Victor Martinez proudly taped a poster showing the brackets of a baseball video-game tournament that he recently competed in against his teammates.

He won it.

And he and the Indians are close to winning something else.

Travis Hafner hit a three-run homer, Martinez had a solo shot and Cleveland unloaded for four homers off Detroit ace Justin Verlander Tuesday night in a 7-4 victory over the Tigers, whose reign as AL champions is nearing an end.

Now 19-5 since Aug. 25, the Indians raised their lead in the AL Central to 6 1/2 games over second-place Detroit, which may have needed to sweep the three-game series to have any shot of catching Cleveland.

Magic number is 5

The Indians’ 41st come-from-behind win dropped their magic number to five for clinching the division — and a first playoff appearance since 2001.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s right there,” said starter Jake Westbrook, who got roughed up in five innings but managed to keep the Indians close. “The offense really picked me up. They never let it get away.”

The Tigers, who came in riding a five-game winning streak, also dropped 4 1/2 games behind New York in the wild card race.

“When you are chasing thoroughbreds, there is very little room for error,” Tigers closer Todd Jones said. “Anybody can do the math. They have really turned the screws. You can tell that they feel they are close and they want it.”

But the Indians, who also moved within one-half game of Boston for the AL’s best record, aren’t icing down the champagne just yet.

“I’ve been around long enough to know not to take anything for granted,” manager Eric Wedge said. “I preach it, so I’ll live it.”

Other shots

Franklin Gutierrez hit a two-run homer and Ryan Garko added solo shots off Verlander (17-6), who had never given up four homers before and lost for just the second time in nine starts.

Both of those were lopsided losses to the Indians, who beat the right-hander three times this season.

He’s 16-3 against everyone else.

“This was a very tough loss,” Verlander said. “I had a lot on my shoulders and I wasn’t very good. Every mistake I made got hit. I’ve got six losses and three are to them. I don’t know if it is something they’re doing or something I’m doing.”

Rookie Jensen Lewis (1-1) pitched three hitless innings for his first major league win, and Joe Borowski worked the ninth for his league-leading 41st save.

The Tigers, who lost 6-5 in 11 innings on Monday, had their chances early against Westbrook. But they stranded 10 runners over the first five innings and then didn’t put another runner on until Placido Polanco got hit with a pitch with two outs in the eighth.

Leyland fumes

Following the game, manager Jim Leyland didn’t need long to explain what happened.

“All his [Verlander’s] soft stuff was up and they capitalized — hit it over the fence,” said Leyland, who spoke for about 20 seconds before reporters shuffled out of his office. “We probably should have scored 10 runs. We had Jake on the ropes. It was a poor job of hitting. That pretty much sums it up, OK?”

Martinez, Cleveland’s steadiest hitter all season, snapped a 4-4 tie in the sixth with his career-high 24th homer — and fourth in 24 at-bats off Verlander. All four homers have come on fastballs.

Martinez credited the Indians’ patient approach against Verlander for the club’s success against the right-hander.

“We keep with our plan and die with our plan,” he said.

Kenny Lofton kept the sixth alive with a two-out single and Gutierrez crushed the first pitch from Verlander, who dropped to 1-4 in five starts at Jacobs Field.