DETROIT -- One year ago to the day, Matthew Boyd held the Indians to one run on three hits over seven innings, but they picked up little run support in a no-decision in Cleveland. It eventually became Detroit’s fourth loss when allowing two or fewer runs, all in its first 10 games, something no team had done since 1933.

The way Boyd, Trevor Bauer and the Tigers' offense had been going this season, the scene seemed favorable for a flashback Wednesday. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, the predominantly dormant Detroit bats came alive against one of baseball’s stingiest pitchers.

Bauer had allowed one run on one hit over 14 innings in his first two starts this season. He allowed four runs over 29 1/3 innings in four meetings with the Tigers last year, winning all of them. Once Josh Harrison caught a low fastball for a sixth-inning RBI single, Detroit matched that run total off Bauer in 5 2/3 innings Wednesday.

The resulting 4-1 win propelled the Tigers back atop the American League Central, swapping places with the three-time defending division champions. More importantly, it provided confidence that Detroit’s lineup can produce runs against tough pitchers beyond its dynamic duo of Nicholas Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera.

“Nobody wants to show up the field and see that they're facing a Cy Young winner every day,” John Hicks said, “but it really makes guys lock in and it makes them stay within themselves. Everyone did that today.”

Detroit’s pitching has shown itself strong enough to take on the Tribe, especially given Cleveland’s hitting. But to get results out of this three-game set, the Tigers -- who scored just 27 runs in their first 10 games combined -- had to take their swings against a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner in Corey Kluber, followed by a perennial AL Cy Young Award candidate in Bauer.

“Kluber and Bauer are similar pitchers,” Hicks continued. “One has more velo, and Kluber probably has a little more deception with that cutter-slider. But both guys are very good. Probably seeing Bauer after seeing Kluber helps.”

The Tigers picked up seven hits off Kluber on Tuesday, but managed only one run. One swing from Niko Goodrum changed the tone against Bauer.

No Major League hitter had homered off Bauer since last September, and no Detroit player had homered off Bauer since Tyler Collins on May 1, 2017, before Goodrum jumped a first-pitch fastball and lined it over the right-field fence in the opening inning Wednesday.

“I'm just trying to be aggressive with stuff in the zone,” Goodrum said. “I think once you're ready to hit a pitch in the zone, it doesn't really matter which pitch it is. It's just in your zone.”

With Cabrera on first base after a two-out single, Goodrum’s first home run of the year built a 2-0 lead, and a mindset with it.

“Niko hitting a homer in the first inning, that puts a pitcher on their heels,” Hicks said. “We grinded out some at-bats. He's a good pitcher. He's going to get his strikeouts. He's going to get outs. But if you can continue to grind and get guys on base and make him uncomfortable, we did that today.”

The Tigers put a runner on base in every inning against Bauer. He found timely strikeouts, but Detroit made him work for them. Bauer's usually devastating slider, which drew a 53 percent whiff rate in his previous two starts this year, drew one swinging strike and no called ones out of 12 pitches Wednesday.

“We had good at-bats,” Harrison said. “You look at him through 5 2/3, he threw 115 pitches. We were working counts, having good at-bats, and when we had an opportunity to cash in, we did.”

Usually that kind of pitch count in less than six innings results in walks. Bauer's only walk Wednesday, however, was a four-pitch pass to Goodrum in the fifth inning that clearly had intent behind it. Bauer reached a handful of other three-ball counts, three of them against Cabrera. The Tigers hadn’t made a pitcher throw that many pitches in less than six innings with only one walk since former Indian John Smiley on Aug. 13, 1997.

Boyd (1-1) didn’t allow a run until Hanley Ramirez’s RBI double in the sixth inning. Just when Bauer seemed to have Cleveland set up for a comeback, however, Detroit struck again.

Hicks was 0-for-6 with four strikeouts against Bauer for his career, and 2-for-17 overall this season, until he caught a curveball for a ground-ball single leading off the fourth. Two innings later, Bauer sped up Hicks’ bat with back-to-back 94 mph fastballs before a changeup drew what Bauer called “a really bad swing.” Bauer went back to the latter with a 1-2 count.

“A really bad one,” Bauer said.

“The second one was kind of in and up enough to get to,” Hicks said.

Hicks’ drive to left was the first home run Bauer allowed on a changeup since 2017, and the first time Bauer surrendered two home runs in a game since Sept. 15, 2017. Gordon Beckham’s double and Harrison’s single completed the damage.

Bauer (1-1) still posted seven strikeouts, but the aura of dominance was missing on a chilly Michigan afternoon. Now the Tigers have to build off it.

“We’re just trying to get better day by day offensively,” manager Ron Gardenhire said.