The victory was the second in a row for the Tigers to finish a three-game series against their Central Division rivals. Detroit plays its next 10 games against division opponents.

"You want to get off on a good foot, especially against your own division," Verlander said. "After losing the first one, it was nice to take two out of three."

Verlander fooled Cleveland batters with off-speed pitches and blew his fastball past them en route to striking out a season-high 11 batters. He allowed only two hits and finished one strikeout short of his career high.

Verlander struck out the side in the third and fourth innings.

For the second consecutive day, Curtis Granderson drove in the winning run, this time with a seventh-inning double down the right-field line that scored Dane Sardinha to break a 1-1 tie. The Tigers tacked on another run in the inning when Magglio Ordonez singled to score Granderson.

"He's our catalyst, there's no question about that," manager Jim Leyland said. "We kind of go like he does. When we get him going on a consistent basis, that should be good news for us."

The big inning for the Tigers followed a Cleveland rally in which the Indians load the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh. Verlander retired the next three hitters to get out of the jam.

"I thought Justin was brilliant," Leyland said. "What a job of pitching -- bases loaded with nobody out and to come out of it. Tremendous. But he was tremendous all day."

When he got in the jam in the seventh, Verlander left no doubt he wanted to finish what he started.

"I kind of gave (Leyland) the 'leave me out here' sign," Verlander said. "I don't think it really matters to him. If he's coming to get me, he's coming to get me. But I wanted the ball. It's a big situation.

"Those are my guys out there. I left them out there. I felt like I had the ability to get out of it."

The Tigers struck first when Brandon Inge hit a solo home run to lead off the second inning, his eighth of the season and third career homer against Lee.

Inge is hitting .394 (13-for-33) against Lee, tops among active players with at least 30 plate appearances against the left-hander.

Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya combined for a scoreless eighth inning, and Fernando Rodney pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save.