Renteria’s grand slam caps Tigers’ win

Some shaky pitching in the eighth helped Detroit beat Cleveland.

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Tigers’ big-name offense finally came through with some big-time hits.

Edgar Renteria hit a grand slam to cap the Tigers’ six-run eighth inning to help Detroit end a four-game losing streak with a 8-4 win over the Cleveland Indians.

“The offense hung in there, and got us some big, big hits at the end,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. “We were finally able to close one out.”

The Tigers made a splash in the offseason, adding Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to send their star-studded payroll up to nearly $139 million. But Detroit is 11 games below .500, closer to the last-place Royals in the AL Central standings than the similarly disappointing Indians, who are third after winning the division a year ago.

Cleveland has been let down by poor hitting and a shaky bullpen, the latter of which was particularly noticeable Saturday.

Marcus Thames homered on Masa Kobayashi’s first pitch of the eighth, tying the game at 3.

“That was big, because it gave us a spark,” Thames said. “Everyone got pumped up a little after that.”

Two pitches later, Magglio Ordonez doubled, bringing Rafael Betancourt out of the bullpen, who continued his season-long struggles. Cabrera hit a line drive to left that seemed to fool Ben Francisco, sailing over his glove for an RBI single.

Carlos Guillen singled and a sacrifice put runners on second and third. Brandon Inge was intentionally walked, and Ryan Raburn struck out before Renteria hit his sixth career grand slam.

“That was a huge hit by Cabrera and an even bigger one by Renteria,” Leyland said.

Zach Miner (3-3) pitched two innings in relief of starter Kenny Rogers. Todd Jones got the final out for his ninth save.

Kobayashi (3-3) lost for Cleveland, which fell to 4-5 on an 11-game road trip.

The Indians took a 2-0 lead in the second when Cabrera misplayed Franklin Gutierrez’s grounder at first and Kelly Shoppach hit a ground-rule double.

Carlos Guillen tied the game in the fourth with a two-run homer off starter Aaron Laffey, but a throwing error by Rogers set up Ryan Garko’s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the sixth.

“It was good to see us come back from 3-2 down,” said Rogers, who allowed three runs — one earned — in seven innings.