Tribe moves past .500 with win over Detroit; Pittsburgh falls again

The Pirates recorded their record-tying 16th consecutive losing season.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND — Cliff Lee stood on the dugout’s top step and tipped his cap to the adoring home crowd. He was a little late — like almost everything else about the Cleveland Indians this season.

Ryan Garko went 4-for-4 with five RBIs, rookie Scott Lewis won his third straight start and the Indians moved over .500 for the first time in more than four months with their sixth straight victory, 10-5 over the sloppy and seemingly disinterested Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

Garko hit a bases-loaded triple in the first inning off Dontrelle Willis (0-2), added a sacrifice fly in the fourth and a RBI double in the seventh as the Indians won their final home game and completed a sweep of a testy three-game series that began with a benches-clearing brawl on Friday night.

On July 9, the Indians (78-77) were a season-high 16 games under .500 and 16 out of first place in the AL Central. Since then, Cleveland has gone 41-24 and now owns a record showing more wins than losses for the first time since the Indians were 22-21 on May 17.

The impressive runs, though, won’t be enough to return Cleveland to the postseason.

“To get back to .500 is nice,” Garko said. “But I’d much rather be talking about the playoffs.”

On Wednesday night, Lee was denied his 23rd win and wound up with a no-decision against Minnesota. The left-hander and front-runner to win the Cy Young sprinted from the mound in the seventh to a thunderous ovation. However, Lee never came out for a curtain call, saying he was too upset at giving up a pair of runs to notice the cheering fans.

He finally took his bow in the ninth inning Sunday, raising his cap way over his head for all to see.

Lewis (3-0), who has had to overcome arm injuries throughout his career, allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings. The left-hander brought in a 14-inning scoreless streak and extended it to 15 before the Tigers scored in the second. Lewis’ third straight solid outing is another plus for the Indians, who have continued to play hard in an injury-soured season that hasn’t gone the way they had hoped.

“We’ve had a lot of adversity,” manager Eric Wedge said. “But these guys never gave into it and finished strong.”

Astros 6, Pirates 2

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates, playing the final home game of a record-tying 16th consecutive losing season, only wish they could have a September or October to rival Roy Oswalt’s.

Oswalt held the Pirates to one run over six innings to continue his strong second half and backup catcher Brad Ausmus drove in two runs to lead Houston.

Miguel Tejada had three hits and an RBI as the Astros took two of three for their first series win since Hurricane Ike forced two key games against the Cubs to be hastily moved to Milwaukee.

The Astros lost six of seven after that and are four games down in the NL wild card race with at least six to play — they’ll play a seventh game, a makeup against Chicago on Sept. 29, only if they remain in contention.

“We’ll play one day at a time and hope we get some help,” Ausmus said before the Astros went home for series against the Reds and Braves.

The Pirates finished 39-42 at PNC Park, the seventh time in eight seasons they didn’t have a winning record there.