Tigers wallop Indians for 3 1/2 lead

Associated Press

DETROIT

Brandon Inge homered in his return to the Tigers lineup and Detroit went on to rout the Cleveland Indians 10-1 on Saturday night.

Inge was designated for assignment in July, a move that many expected to end his 11-year career. He accepted a demotion to Triple-A Toledo, though, and hit well enough for the Mud Hens to earn a surprising recall.

Inge homered in his first at-bat and hit a 400-foot RBI double in his second as the Tigers increased their AL Central lead to 31/2 games. He hadn’t had two extra-base hits in a game since August 20, 2010 — exactly a year earlier.

Alex Avila, catching his 14th straight game, went 2-2 with three walks. He’s hitting .442 with a .567 on-base percentage in August.

Doug Fister, who had the league’s worst run support while pitching for Seattle, took advantage of Detroit’s offensive outburst to improve to 5-13.

Cleveland starter David Huff (1-2) allowed five runs on four hits and four walks in 21/3 innings.

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first on Miguel Cabrera’s RBI single and Victor Martinez’s sacrifice fly, but it was the second inning that brought a sold-out crowd of 44,629 to its feet.

Inge, who had been booed loudly before his demotion, was cheered when he came to the plate, and the fans got louder when he homered to left. Later in the inning, Magglio Ordonez, who had lost his job when the Tigers traded for Delmon Young, hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

The Indians got a run back in the third on Shin-Soo Choo’s homer, but Inge hit a ground-rule double over the center-field fence to make it 5-1 in the bottom of the inning.

Detroit got a pair of unearned runs in the fifth when Michael Brantley dropped an Inge flyball, and then put the game out of reach in the seventh.