MLB: Detroit 4, Cleveland 1

DETROIT, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Austin Jackson, Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta homered Friday in leading the Detroit Tigers to a 4-1 win over Cleveland in the opener of a key weekend series.

The Tigers moved 2 1/2 games in front of the Indians for the lead in the American League Central, getting seven outstanding innings out of starter Max Scherzer.

Cleveland had won six of its previous eight games and had defeated Detroit in six of their nine meetings this year.

Scherzer (13-7) allowed a run on five hits while striking out six. He threw 127 pitches before giving way in the eighth to Joaquin Benoit.

Benoit and Jose Valverde each worked a perfect inning of relief and Valverde picked up his 36th save, tops in the American League.

The game was scoreless into the sixth, when Ryan Raburn reached on a one-out single and scored in front of Jackson's homer to left-center.

Scherzer threw a wild pitch in the seventh that allowed Cleveland's only run to score but Avila and Peralta delivered homers in the bottom half of the inning.

All three home runs were surrendered by Josh Tomlin (12-6), who gave up six hits in 6 2/3 innings.