Tigers' Fister beats rain, Indians

DETROIT — The Tigers weren't about to let the umpires take another game away from them Saturday night.

After Tuesday's fiasco in Boston, where rain wrecked their chances to rally against the Red Sox, the Tigers took care of things in a hurry against Cleveland. Doug Fister waited out a 37-minute delay, then pitched his first complete game as a Tiger in a 6-1 victory.

"I had some energy running in the ninth," he said. "I had to take a second to regroup and kind of calm down. But it was a good feeling, the energy and the roar of the crowd. It's something you can't ignore."

Fister knew that more rain was heading quickly for Comerica Park, and he made the most of his limited time. He retired the first 17 Indians before Ezequiel Carrera tripled with two out in the sixth.

Fister was within an inning of his first career shutout before Carrera tripled and scored in the ninth.

"I try to work fast, and they said once it (rain) hit, we were going to have a short window to finish the game," Fister said. "I didn't have any real idea. I just knew that we were hoping to get it in, and luckily, we did."

Fister, as is his wont, wasn't even considering the idea of a perfect game, even as he moved through the sixth.

"It really didn't cross my mind, to tell you the truth," he said. "I go out there and really focus on every pitch.

"Typically, I don't know what inning it is, or how many outs there are. It's just a matter of going out there and throwing."

Despite the results, Fister wasn't at the top of his game. Along with Carrera's pair of triples over Austin Jackson's head in center, Fister allowed a ninth-inning double to Shin-Soo Choo and several more line drives that Jackson ran down.

"Fister always pitches good against us, but we hit a lot of balls hard to straightaway center field," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "That's the wrong place to hit them here."

Ubaldo Jimenez didn't have a bad outing for the Indians, but the Tigers were able to get the leadoff hitter on base in five of his six innings.

"It was kind of weird, really," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He was throwing some soft stuff before the rain delay, but after it, he threw like 18 or 19 straight fastballs and we were able to get some big hits off of him."

The Tigers go for the sweep on Sunday, with Max Scherzer trying to hand the Indians their first 0-9 road trip since at least 1918.