JOSH WEIR
CLEVELAND — The postgame fireworks Friday night at Progressive Field were only an encore. Fausto Carmona and Gary Sheffield provided the explosive action earlier.
Shin-Soo Choo’s three-run home run tied the game in the eighth and Jamey Carroll’s RBI hit in the ninth finished off a 6-5 Indians win against the Tigers. Judging by Sheffield’s face, the Indians also won the brawl in the seventh inning.
Manager Eric Wedge lauded his team’s ability to keep playing hard despite the playoffs not being a possibility.
“That’s the way they fought through it tonight — no pun intended,” he said.
With the Tigers up 4-2 in the seventh, Carmona hit Sheffield in the elbow with an 0-1 fastball. Sheffield walked all the way to first base with bat in hand, staring at Carmona as Carmona stared back.
Carmona then immediately threw over to first base, causing Sheffield to gesture to throw the ball home. Soon the melee was under way with Sheffield attacking from first base.
Both dugouts and bullpens emptied. Carmona was able to deliver several quick punches to Sheffield’s head. Sheffield left the brawl with a large welt under his left eye.
After the initial fight was broken up, catcher Victor Martinez gestured to Sheffield as if to say, “Come get some more,” while being restrained by several players. Tribe fans joined the fun by chanting, “Detroit sucks!”
“If you’re going to do something, charge,” Martinez said afterward. “But after you’re at first what are you trying to do? Get attention or what?”
Carmona, who didn’t want to talk about the fight, and Martinez were ejected from the Indians, while Sheffield and second baseman Placido Polanco were ejected from the Tigers.
“Everyone knows in the league that Fausto pitches in,” Martinez added. “He’s not throwing at anybody on purpose. That’s his game. That’s his strength. He’s not going to stop that just because someone doesn’t like it.”
Not surprisingly, Sheffield had a few thoughts about the situation.
“I don’t know how many years he has, but his act is tired,” Sheffield said about Martinez. “He’ doesn’t want any part of me, trust me. Let me know when and where you want to meet and I guarantee you, he won’t be there.”
Sheffield and Carmona have some history. Carmona drilled Sheffield in the hip during an April 17 game in which the two teams combined for five hit batsmen.
“It’s the third time this year (he’s hit me),” Sheffield said. “Three strikes and you’re out. If he does it a fourth time, it’s going to get more violent.
“He called me out and I answered the call.”
Sheffield’s only been hit twice this season by Carmona, but apparently no one wanted to correct him at the time.
Miguel Cabrera left his own kind of welt Friday on Carmona.
The Detroit slugger hammered a pair of two-run home runs at a combined distance of 852 feet. Those two bombs — both off decent pitches — ruined one of Carmona’s better starts of the year. He allowed four runs on five hits in 61⁄3 innings, striking out five while not walking a batter.
Detroit starter Armando Galarraga, who one-hit the Tribe through 51⁄3 innings, allowed a pair of solo home runs to Choo and Grady Sizemore. He left with two outs in the seventh when Sizemore blooped a double to left.
Lefty reliever Casey Fossum walked pinch hitter Ben Francisco. Then it was Choo time.
Fossum, who has dominated the Tribe in 2008, grooved a 1-0 slider that Choo hit 425 feet to right-center. Upset about striking out twice against lefties vs. the Twins on Wednesday, Choo worked with hitting instructor Derek Shelton and faced 100 sliders before Friday’s game.
That hard worked turned into a curtain call for the 33,733 fans after the three-run shot.
Choo had three hits overall, giving him a season total of 88 — a major league record for a Korean-born player.
Kelly Shoppach was nicked by a Freddy Dolsi pitch leading off the ninth. Pinch hitter Ryan Garko advanced pinch runner Josh Barfield to third with a one-out hit off Gary Glover. Carroll then hit the first pitch he saw deep to right, well over the head of Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez, to score Barfield.
“I was getting some jabs under the pile,” Carroll said of the post-game celebration. “I said, ‘You guys should have used those earlier in the game.’”
