DETROIT — The crowd was modest, per usual these days.
But it also was into it, not per usual.
Miguel Cabrera had a two-out single in the fifth inning, drawing a roar much louder than you'd expect from a crowd of 17,829, and Kody Clemens homered as the Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians, 8-2, on Wednesday to complete a four-game sweep at Comerica Park.
Javier Báez also had an RBI single in the three-run fifth inning, to break a 2-2 tie.
The four-game winning streak matches the Tigers' longest of the season. For the series, the Tigers, with the worst offense in baseball, scored 28 runs. That's the most they've scored over a four-game stretch this year. For some perspective, from June 3 through June 17, they scored 23 runs in 13 games.
They're still just 34-47 on the year, and now depart on a 14-game road trip through Chicago, Kansas City, Cleveland and Oakland wrapped around the All-Star break. They don't play another home game until July 23.
Cabrera, batting .308 and riding a 13-game hitting streak, also had a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, giving him 1,835 career RBIs. That moved him into 17th place all time, past Dave Winfield.
The sacrifice fly scored Robbie Grossman, who reached on an RBI triple to the gap in right-center.
The Tigers scored twice in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead, on RBI singles by Clemens (scoring Jonathan Schoop, with another hit) and Tucker Barnhart (who also walked twice).
Guardians starter Shane Bieber (3-5), who came into the game 7-3 with a 2.18 ERA in 10 career starts against Detroit, took the loss, allowing five runs in 5 2/3 innings. Bieber struck out six and walked two. Reliever James Karinchak was hit around in the seventh inning as the Guardians fell to 40-40, back to the .500 mark for the first time since June 7. They've lost 12 of 16.
Clemens hit his third major league homer, in the eighth, a high, 377-foot shot to right field off Emmanuel Clase, who hadn't allowed a home run in 11 previous appearances against the Tigers.
Clemens was the only Tiger with multiple hits. Every Tiger but one (Willi Castro) had a hit.
Michael Pineda (2-3) went five innings for Detroit for the win, allowing two runs on five hits, including a home run by Guardians cleanup man Franmil Reyes in the second inning. He walked two and struck out two.
The Tigers' bullpen, as it's done so often this year, took it from there, throwing four scoreless innings — one from Alex Lange (two strikeouts), Michael Fulmer (one strikeout), Andrew Chafin and recently recalled Will Vest. Chafin worked around a two-base throwing error by Clemens in the eighth inning to post his sixth consecutive scoreless inning, his longest streak of the season.
