The Tribe has lost five in a row against the Tigers and is 3-13 in the season series.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- So much for the AL Central Division race and the Indians' involvement in it.
The Tigers created all but mathematical certainty with a four-game sweep at Progressive Field, the capper coming Thursday night in resounding fashion.
Detroit scored six runs in the third inning in support of right-hander Max Scherzer and cruised to a 10-3 victory. Scherzer allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings and improved to 17-1 -- the best record ever for a Tiger in his first 18 decisions.
Tribe utility man Ryan Raburn, who signed a two-year extension earlier this week, worked a perfect ninth. It was his major-league pitching debut and Cleveland's first by a non-pitcher since Andy Marte on July 29, 2010, against the Yankees.
Raburn opened with an 84-mph called strike to Brayan Pena. Pena grounded out. Raburn overmatched pinch-hitter Matt Tuiasosopo, striking him out swinging at an 89-mph pitch. Hernan Perez grounded softly to second.
Raburn exited to a standing ovation.
"It's one of the things I've always wanted to do,'' Raburn said. "Now I can say I pitched in the big leagues. Unfortunately, it came to that for us, but it's part of the game. Hopefully, we won't need to do that again.''
Raburn, who said he was as nervous as he had been for his first major-league at-bat, relied on a one-pitch mix. His changeup was a rumor.
"I tried to make sure I didn't get hurt, but I didn't want to lob it in there, either,'' he said. "I told my agent we need to renegotiate because I'm a two-way player now.''
Indians manager Terry Francona had come to Raburn in the seventh and told him to get loose.
"He was one of the extra players, and I wasn't going to pitch Jason Giambi and Yan Gomes is our catcher,'' Francona said. "So it's self-explanatory. Ryan kept himself under control and threw strikes.''
• Tigers-Indians boxscore | Scoreboard | Standings
Back to reality, the defending AL champion Tigers (68-45) have won 12 straight and turned a three-game lead in the division into seven. Third-place Kansas City is pressuring Cleveland.
The Indians (62-53) have co-owners: Larry Dolan and the Tigers. The Tribe has lost five in a row to Detroit and is 3-13 in the season series. Detroit won nine of the 10 contested at Progressive Field.
At least the Indians have a wild-card race with which to concern themselves. And they only need to face Detroit three more times.
"We'll be fine,'' Francona said. "I believe that, or I wouldn't say it. I have a feeling we'll hang in there. We'll figure out a way.''
For the first three nights of the supposed "showdown'' series, the Indians did not hit much but were competitive. On Monday, they led by two runs entering the ninth and lost, 4-2. On Tuesday, they led by one after four and lost, 5-1. On Wednesday, they led by one after seven and lost, 6-5, in 14 innings.
By Thursday, they seemingly had run out of spitballs for the Central's big, bad bully. A poor performance by the starting pitcher -- in this case, righty Zach McAllister -- tends to go a long way toward making any club seem over-matched.
McAllister gave up six runs (five earned) on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out three. He was gone after 61 pitches.
Detroit threatened in the second. Prince Fielder led off with double and moved to third on Victor Martinez's grounder. Don Kelly grounded to short and Alex Avila struck out looking.
At that point, McAllister had thrown 25 pitches. He appeared to be on his way to no worse than a competitive outing. Then came the third. McAllister, as he and the Indians know him, vanished.
No. 8 batter Ramon Santiago walked on four pitches. Santiago entered the night hitting .208 with 13 walks in 47 games. McAllister, suddenly unable to get the ball down, fell behind Perez, 3-0. Perez took two strikes before punching a high fastball to right for a single.
McAllister threw two balls to Austin Jackson -- and seemed uncomfortable doing it. Tribe pitching coach Mickey Callaway visited. Jackson's at-bat lasted seven pitches and ended in a walk to load the bases. Andy Dirks struck out swinging on three pitches. It proved to be a fluke because Miguel Cabrera walked to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
Fielder, in a 3-1 count, smacked a two-run double to left-center. Two pitches later, Martinez hit a two-run double to right.
Kelly walked on five pitches. Francona summoned right-handed reliever Preston Guilmet, who was recalled from Class AAA Columbus earlier in the day.
"I got out of sync,'' McAllister said. "I wasn't able to command the ball, and then I wasn't able to make the adjustments I needed to.''
McAllister made his fourth start since returning from more than a month on the disabled list because of a sprained right middle finger.
"I felt great physically,'' McAllister said. "I just had terrible command.''
Martinez, a former Indian, finished 2-for-5 with three RBI. He is 24-for-63 with 12 RBI against the Tribe this season.
Scherzer retired the first nine he faced on a total of 37 pitches. He struck out three, including Jason Kipnis to end the first for the 1,000th of his career.
Michael Bourn led off the fourth with a grounder that struck Scherzer and rolled away from him. Scherzer's hurried throw skipped away from first baseman Fielder. Credit Bourn with an infield single.
After Kipnis flied out, Asdrubal Cabrera doubled to right-center to drive in Bourn.
Miguel Cabrera's two-run single in the fifth made it 10-1. His RBI total increased to 105.
Asdrubal Cabrera delivered an RBI single in the sixth.
Scherzer allowed four hits, walked one and struck out five. He threw 71 of 100 pitches for strikes.
"It was a tough series,'' Francona said. "We got beat up a little bit. When I say we, I mean we. I really care about this group of guys.''
The Indians sent Guilmet back to Columbus after the game. No corresponding move was announced.