But in his return to the rotation Sunday against the Tigers, Sowers didn't show the aggressiveness that had made him so successful at Triple-A Buffalo this year. He was roughed up early, and the Indians lost, 5-2, to the Tigers at Comerica Park.

Sowers got into the bad habit of nibbling. He needed 90 pitches to get through just four innings of work in which the Tigers scored five runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Miguel Cabrera's RBI single made it a 1-0 game in the first. Curtis Granderson's solo homer made it 2-0 in the second. But Sowers really found trouble in the fourth, after the Indians had cut the Tigers' lead to one on Grady Sizemore's third-inning RBI single off Armando Galarraga.

In the fourth, Carlos Guillen led off with a double, and Ivan Rodriguez knocked him in with a ground-ball single to right. Sowers got two outs after walking Brent Clevlen, but the inning officially got away from him when Placido Polanco lined a two-run single to left to make it 5-1.

The Indians never recovered from that inning. They left the bases loaded against reliever Freddy Dolsi in the eighth and fell to 4-6 on an 11-game road trip that wraps up Monday.