Lee pitches 19th victory, Indians’ streak reaches 9

DETROIT (AP) — Cliff Lee got his American League-leading 19th win and Ben Francisco hit two home runs in the Cleveland Indians’ ninth straight victory, 10-4 over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.

Jamey Carroll and Kelly Shoppach hit back-to-back homers for Cleveland, which overtook Detroit for third place in the AL Central. The Indians are three games under .500 for the first time since May 24.

Edgar Renteria hit a home run for the Tigers, who have dropped three straight.

Lee (19-2) allowed two runs and six hits in 7 2-3 innings to tie Brandon Webb of Arizona for the major league lead in wins. It’s also a career-high; Lee won 18 games in 2005. Lee has won five straight starts, and eight of nine. The Cy Young contender is 5-0 with a 1.86 ERA in August.

Lee became the eighth pitcher since 1920 to win 19 of his first 21 decisions in a season, according to Stats LLC. The last to do it was Roger Clemens, who was 20-1 after beating the White Sox on Sept. 19, 2001, while with the Yankees.

Chris Lambert (0-1) gave up six runs — two earned — and five hits in 2 2-3 innings in his major league debut for the Tigers. Lambert’s contract was purchased from Triple-A Toledo earlier on Tuesday.

The Indians used the longball and two Tigers errors to score six in the third. Carroll and Shoppach led off with back-to-back home runs. Carroll’s was his first since last Aug. 11.

Lambert then hit Orlando Cabrera with a pitch. Cabrera stole second and came home on third baseman Ryan Raburn’s error on a groundball by Franklin Gutierrez. One out later, Jhonny Peralta singled and Guttierez scored when the ball skipped past left fielder Marcus Thames for an error and rolled to the fence.