Tribe hitters stumped by Tigers’ rookie

DETROIT (AP) — Rick Porcello isn’t worried about pitching in a pennant race.

He’s just concerned about how his mother will take it.

The 20-year-old rookie led the Detroit Tigers to a 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night, allowing two runs on five hits in seven-plus innings.

“You look at him, and you realize he was striking out high school kids two years ago,” Tigers catcher Gerald Laird said. “He just gets better and better every time he pitches.”

Porcello (12-8) has allowed two or fewer runs in six of his last seven starts, and has now won more games than any Tigers pitcher before the age of 21.

“This is a lot of fun,” said Porcello. “This is what baseball is all about.”

Porcello won’t show that much enthusiasm in his phone call home, though.

“I can’t talk about baseball with my mom,” he said. “She’s way too emotional and gets too excited.”

The Tigers, who now lead the Twins by 41‚Ñ2 games in the AL Central, were aided by five Cleveland errors, the most they had committed in a game since 1998.

“It’s starting to feel more and more like we are in the driver’s seat,” Laird said. “It’s September and everyone is talking about the teams chasing us, not the other way around.”

Laird said the Tigers were inspired by Chicago’s ninth-inning rally to beat Minnesota earlier in the day.

“We came in early today, saw the Twins lose, and then we went out and took advantage,” he said. “Cleveland gave us four or five outs in a couple innings, and we didn’t let them off the hook.”

Three Tigers relievers finished, with Fernando Rodney pitching the ninth for his 31st save in 32 tries. Cleveland had runners on the corners with one out in the final inning, but Jhonny Peralta finished a miserable night by grounding into a game-ending double play. Peralta also committed three of Cleveland’s errors, including two on a single fourth-inning play.

Aaron Laffey (7-4) took the loss, allowing four runs, two unearned, in 61‚Ñ3 innings.

“You have to give Laffey a lot of credit,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “We didn’t play very well behind him — that’s pretty obvious with five errors — and he never gave in to it. For him to give us a chance to tie that game in the ninth inning is remarkable.”

Travis Hafner chased Porcello with a homer to lead off the eighth.

“We made a lot of quick outs tonight, but that was all because of the kid pitching for the other team,” Wedge said.