Sanchez's no-hit bid drives Tigers to win

Detroit Tigers' Quintin Berry, right, is congratulated by Andy Dirks after Berry scored on a sacrifice fly by Austin Jackson in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Saturday. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

CLEVELAND — Anibal Sanchez thought he could pitch a no-hitter and Alex Avila believed he touched third base.

Turns out, neither did as the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 5-3 despite having a run taken off the scoreboard Saturday.

Carlos Santana ruined Sanchez's no-hit bid with a two-out triple in the seventh, but Cleveland was officially eliminated from the playoffs after falling to 16-45 since the All-Star break.

"I thought I would do it," Sanchez (3-5) said of throwing his second career no-hitter. "I was trying to be aggressive, not be afraid and all my pitches were working."

Sanchez struck out seven over 6 2/3 innings as Detroit stayed one game behind the first place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central with its fourth straight win.

Ironically, the White Sox also won 5-3 as Chicago starter Francisco Liriano had a no-hitter for 6? innings against Minnesota.

"It is what it is," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We're still playing for pretty big stakes, just as they are."

After Cleveland rallied, Jose Valverde, the fourth Tigers pitcher, worked the ninth for his 31st save in 35 chances.

Leyland said the win was bigger than Sanchez's bid for history and that he went to the bullpen to help the right-hander get only his second victory in seven starts since Aug. 8.

"You can't get sentimental, well, maybe if you've got a 15-run lead," Leyland said. "He was throwing great, got two quick outs in the seventh, then they got a couple runs."

Detroit got only one run instead of two in the fifth for a 4-0 lead when Avila missed third.

With two outs, and Avila on second after an RBI double off Justin Masterson (11-14), Quintin Berry hit a ball into the hole at shortstop, where Asdrubal Cabrera fielded it and threw to third to try and get Avila advancing. The wild throw sent Avila home and Berry to second.

Cleveland changed pitchers, and reliever Tony Sipp stepped off the rubber and threw to third base on an appeal as Berry broke for the bag in an attempted steal. Third-base ump Wally Bell ordered Berry back, since time was still out.

The appeal happened again, with Berry again running, and this time Bell signaled out and took the run off the board.

"We didn't see it right off the bat," manager Manny Acta said of Avila missing the bag as he slid in. "One of our coaches went down to watch a video and we found out through that. The pitching change gave us time to appeal the play."

Leyland said Tigers third-base coach Gene Lamont saw the Indians signal third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall during the break. So Lamont met with Berry and told him to run.

"Once he explained it, I understood and it was a very smart thing," Berry said. "But I was thinking people would be saying how stupid I was. I had a feeling Twitter was going crazy on me."

The idea was to have Berry run, hoping the Indians would tag him instead of stepping on the base. If so, that play would have happened sequentially after Avila scored. When Chisenhall stood on the bag to take the appeal throw, even though he then touched Berry, the out was recorded on Avila.

Sanchez had a perfect game until hitting Shin-Soo Choo in the leg with a pitch to open the fourth. Choo was erased on Santana's inning-ending double play.