Vinnie Pestano established himself as an effective reliever for the Cleveland Indians this season.

But Pestano and his teammates weren't especially satisfied with how the campaign ended.

Cleveland lost to American League Central Division champion Detroit 5-4 in the regular-season finale on Wednesday. Pestano came in the bottom of the eighth with the game tied 4-4. On his first pitch, Tiger shortstop Jhonny Peralta slammed it over the left field fence for a homer which proved to be the game-winner.

"I threw a fastball on the first pitch and he was pretty aggressive," Pestano said. "I was trying to get ahead. I felt confident going first-pitch fastball to him. He jumped on it and had enough to put it out. I guess that will give me motivation going into the offseason."

Pestano ended the regular season at 1-2 with a sparkling 2.32 ERA. He entered Wednesday's game with scoreless work in 55-of-66 appearances and a least one strikeout in 51 of those games. The Indians were 43-24 when he put in an appearance.

Going into Wednesday's game, among American League relievers, Pestano was fifth in strikeouts with 82, tied for eighth in holds with 23, sixth in opponents batting average at .183, tied for 14th in appearances with 66, eighth in ERA with 2.21 and 12th in average with men on base at .194. Of his last 31 appearances, 27 were scoreless.

The Indians fell out of the race in mid-September in the American League's Central Division as the Tigers ran away with it. But Pestano and the Indians were hopeful of ending with a win Wednesday for a .500 record. Instead they finished at 80-82.

"I'm not very happy and it's something I'll take with me into the offseason," Pestano said. "This team played hard all year."

The Indians lost their last 10 games of the season to the Tigers. Many thought several weeks ago that the three-game series in Detroit to end the regular season could have the division title on the line. But the Tigers got hot while the Indians couldn't catch up. The Indians figure the Tigers will be the team to beat again in 2012.

"It's going to be a Detroit-Cleveland thing next year," Pestano said. "There's a lot of good teams. We'll come back and we'll all reload. We'll be clicking on all cylinders when everyone comes around."

The Indians struggled with injuries during key moments of the season but Pestano, who completed his first full regular season in the majors, said there might have been some hidden benefits from that.

"It gave a lot of our other guys a lot of work," he said. "That's more time than they normally would have gotten. If we would need somebody, they'll be accustomed to what needs to be done up there."

It was a promising start to the season when the Indians won 14 straight home games from April 3 to May 10 to equal the third longest home winning streak in club history. In late May, Cleveland had a seven-game lead in the Central Division. But the Indians lost a season-high five straight games June 2-6 and since May 24 were 50-67.

"Right now, it's tough," Pestano said. "We'll start trying to get over it but it will carry over a few months, I've sure."

"You want to be a .500 ballclub," said Indian third baseman Matt LaPorta. "Detroit is obviously a good ballclub. They played us well."

Being in a race for several months "was great for us," LaPorta said. "A lot of guys learned from it. It's a building block for next year. We did a good job as a team and played hard. It was good to be a part of it."

 

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