CLEVELAND _ Sometimes to kill a particularly persistent streak, you not only have to shake it off you and knock it to the ground, but you have to stand on it until it stops moving.
The Tigers, at long last, have vanquished the 20-game losing streak against the Cleveland Indians Friday.
Ignited by a grand slam by rookie Isaac Paredes, the Tigers erased a 5-0 deficit and beat the Indians for the first time since April of 2019 _ 10-5. It also snaps their current nine-game losing streak.
The Indians KO'd starter Michael Fulmer, who struggled to command his pitches. He allowed just five hits _ but a walk and hit-batsman led to three runs in the second inning. Franmil Reyes completely ruined his night with a two-run homer in the third.
Before the game, Matthew Boyd, who gets the start against the Indians on Saturday, talked about the mood in the Tigers clubhouse, and the word he used to describe it was resilient. He said Miguel Cabrera, Cameron Maybin and Austin Romine had addressed the clubhouse at various times during the skid.
"I'm just really grateful for the veteran players who are leaders on this team and for the coaches and for Gardy (manager Ron Gardenhire) who leads us," he said. "They haven't let us be down. We're fighting. ... They're invested. I've been in this situation as a young guy and it can feel like the end of the world. But you know what, a few balls go your way and five days later you can be back to .500. Things can change just like that.
"It's never as bad as it seems and it's never as good as it seems."
Sure enough, down 5-0 in the third and things got better in a hurry.
First Jonathan Schoop hit a two-run home run that might have broken Statcast. Last seen, the ball, hit high and deep to left field, looked to be heading out of Progressive Field. There was no Statcast data available on it.
Schoop had four hits on the night.
The Tigers then loaded the bases _ this off Indians starter Adam Plutko who breezed through the first three innings allowing just one hit. Romine whacked a two-strike single to right to make it 5-3.
That set up Paredes, who was 1 for 10 in his young big-league career. He, too, got in a two-strike hole. He fouled off two tough pitches, sliders, and then turned on an inside fastball and hit it on a line into the grandstands in left field.
His first big league home run is a grand slam _ not too shabby. The last Tiger to do that was Brennan Boesch in 2010.
The Tigers stepped on the Indians necks, figuratively, of course, scoring three more in the seventh. Victor Reyes hit a line-drive home run to right off reliever Dominic Leone. Then, after a single by Cabrera and a double by Schoop, Jeimer Candelario ripped a two-run single.
The second star of the night for the Tigers in this one, though, was the bullpen. They got three shutdown innings from Rule 5 rookie Rony Garcia and Jose Cisnero. Garcia got Jose Ramirez with runners on second and third in the fourth inning.
Cisneros, for the second straight outing, was unhittable. He struck out Reyes, Tyler Naquin and Domingo Santana in a row, and allowed one two-out single in 1 2/3 innings.
Lefty Gregory Soto, who had two forgettable outings in Chicago, blew through Ramirez (strikeout), Francisco Lindor (strikeout) and Carlos Santana (comebacker to the mound).
Bryan Garcia worked around an error by Paredes and a walk to put up a zero in the eighth. And Buck Farmer, in his first appearance since coming off the injured list Thursday, closed it out.
The Cleveland monkey, at last, is off their backs.
