Bullpen drops ball as Indians fall to Tigers

With a one-run lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning, the Indians turned to reliever Phil Maton, who, in five career appearances against the Tigers, had not given up a run in six frames. But after a leadoff walk and a single through the first three batters, the Tribe

With a one-run lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning, the Indians turned to reliever Phil Maton, who, in five career appearances against the Tigers, had not given up a run in six frames. But after a leadoff walk and a single through the first three batters, the Tribe decided to leave Maton on the mound, and it didn’t pan out in their favor.

The Tigers had runners on first and second when former member of the Tribe organization Eric Haase served a single into center field to tie the game, before Daz Cameron followed with another RBI single that sparked a four-run frame in Cleveland’s 5-2 loss to Detroit on Saturday evening at Comerica Park.

• Box score

After Cameron’s single, Maton walked pinch-hitter Miguel Cabrera, prompting acting manager Sandy Alomar Jr. to hand the ball over to Cam Hill. Though James Karinchak had been stirring in the bullpen, he was not given the green light to begin warming up (having worked three of the last four nights), which left Hill to handle the last two-thirds of the frame. But Hill walked in a run and Willi Castro tacked on a sacrifice fly to put the Tribe’s offense in a hole it couldn’t dig out of in the ninth.