Tigers 12, Indians 5

DETROIT – Ivan Rodriguez delivered three more hits and the Detroit Tigers won their sixth in a row, defeating the Cleveland Indians 12-5.

The Tigers’ winning streak is their longest since they took six straight in May 2002.

Detroit overcame a three-run deficit and improved to 37-39. Last year, when the Tigers set an AL record with 119 losses, they didn’t get their 37th win until Sept. 4.

Dmitri Young and Carlos Pena homered for Detroit, which won its previous three on game-ending home runs.

Rodriguez went 3-for-4, raising his major league-leading average to .381.

Rodriguez batted .500 (43-for-86) in June, and became the first major leaguer to hit .500 for a month since Colorado’s Todd Helton in May 2000. Rodriguez was the first player in Tigers’ history to do it.

Nate Robertson (7-3) improved to 5-0 in his last eight starts, striking out eight while allowing three runs in seven innings. Mike Maroth was the only Tigers pitcher to win seven games last year, and didn’t reach that total until Sept. 12.

Jason Davis (2-6) dropped to 1-3 in his last five starts, allowing seven runs and 12 hits in 5 1-3 innings. He dropped to 0-3 with a 9.19 ERA against the Tigers this season.

Matt Lawton’s RBI single and Lou Merloni’s two-run single put Cleveland ahead 3-0 in the third, but the Tigers tied it in the bottom half on Rodriguez’s two-run, 420-foot double to center and Young’s solo homer.

Omar Infante hit a go-ahead single in the fourth, and Carlos Guillen’s RBI single made it 5-3 in the fifth.

The Tigers added two more runs in the sixth on run-scoring singles by Eric Munson and Bobby Higginson, chasing Davis.

Pena hit a two-run homer off Jose Jimenez in the seventh.

Cleveland made it 9-5 in the eighth with two runs in the eighth. Mark Little hit a sacrifice fly in his first major league game since Sept. 29, 2002, and Tim Laker added an RBI single.

Detroit scored three in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by Guillen and a run-scoring single by Pena.

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge and center fielder Coco Crisp were ejected in the sixth inning for arguing a call at first base. Crisp appeared to make contact with first base umpire Ed Rapuano after being called out on a grounder to short.

Notes: Rodriguez’s third-inning double was the 400th of his career. … Jody Gerut replaced Crisp in the Cleveland lineup, while coach Buddy Bell, a former Tigers manager, replaced Wedge. … No major league team has ever hit game-ending homers in four straight games.

AP-ES-06-30-04 2210EDT