DETROIT -- Magglio Ordonez tracked his line drive down the left-field line with a glimmer of hope. He saw the ball land just outside the foul line and stopped his path to first base. The television cameras caught him saying, "Wow."

After he ended up with another out en route to an 0-for-5 night on Monday, it's a pretty common reaction.

"That's baseball," he told reporters after the game.

For the moment, it's a stretch of struggling baseball for him. He's one of the few players who can hope with good reason that a rematch with Indians ace lefty Cliff Lee will help him out of it.

Ordonez says he feels fine at the plate. He's hitting some pitches hard, including that line drive. Right now, he's not getting the results. As a result, a few weeks after he was challenging for another American League batting title, he's in a position where he needs to stop the slide soon to keep his average over .300.

At .307, his average is at its lowest point in more than five weeks. It's just the kind of slump a hitter encounters over the course of a season, but a tough time of the season to encounter it.

"I feel good," Ordonez said after the game Monday. "There's just nothing happening."

Ordonez is batting .308 since coming off of the disabled list after the All-Star break, but his more recent stats reflect the struggles. He went 5-for-24 on last week's road trip to Texas and Kansas City, and just one of those hits went for extra bases.

Meanwhile, his two strikeouts Monday night raised his total to 12 over the last 14 games.

"He's struggling right now, that's for sure," manager Jim Leyland said.

Over the years, however, he has had Lee's number. For that matter, so have a few Tigers.

While the Tigers haven't handed Lee a loss yet this season, his 7.20 ERA against Detroit is his highest against any American League opponent. So is the .356 average and .903 OPS that Tigers hitters have posted off of him. Ordonez, for his part, is 2-for-6 with a couple singles against Lee this year, but 13-for-36 against him for his career.

That kind of success gives Chris Lambert the task to oppose Lee for his Major League debut and feel at least some hope.

"I guess he's bound to lose sometime," Lambert told the Toledo Blade over the weekend after learning of his call-up.

Lambert has succeeded at Triple-A Toledo by mixing his low-90s fastball, curve and changeup to keep hitters off-balance. He'll try to do the same against an Indians lineup that has punished pitchers over the course of their eight-game winning streak.

The Tigers might need him to keep the Tribe's offense contained to hold onto third place in the AL Central. The Indians' 4-3 win in 10 innings Monday night brought them to within a half-game of the Tigers in the standings. It isn't the race they were hoping for when the season began, but it's a close race nonetheless.

Pitching matchup
DET: RHP Chris Lambert (0-0, -.-- ERA)
The Tigers will purchase Lambert's contract from Triple-A Toledo to fill Nate Robertson's old spot in their rotation. It will mark the Major League debut of Lambert, a first-round pick of the Cardinals in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft who came to the Tigers system last summer in the Mike Maroth trade. He owns a 12-8 record and 3.50 ERA in 26 starts for the Mud Hens, including three complete games and a shutout. He ranks fifth in the International League in ERA.

CLE: LHP Cliff Lee (18-2, 2.43 ERA)
Lee notched his American League-best 18th win of the season on Thursday with yet another quality start. The 29-year-old took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, but ultimately saw it disappear and then proceeded to allow three runs, before settling down to escape after seven innings with just the three runs of damage. Lee skirted trouble throughout, inducing four double plays, but he was still able to strike out seven batters. Lee is just two wins shy of becoming the Indians' first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry accomplished the feat in 1974. In two starts against the Tigers this season, Lee is 1-0 with a 7.20 ERA -- largely the result of a five-inning, six-run outing on July 31. Lifetime, Lee is 4-6 with a 5.46 ERA in 16 starts against Detroit.

Tidbits
Detroit made room for Lambert on the 25-man roster by designating reliever Francis Beltran for assignment after Monday's game. Beltran owns a 1-0 record and 4.85 ERA over 13 innings in 11 appearances for the Tigers this year, including six outings over the past two weeks since being recalled earlier this month. ... Third baseman Carlos Guillen is likely out of Tuesday's lineup after leaving Monday's game with a recurrence of lower back spasms. He's listed as day-to-day. ... Left-hander Dontrelle Willis left his start at Triple-A Toledo on Monday after just one inning with what was listed as tightness in his left forearm.

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Up next
• Wednesday: Tigers (Justin Verlander, 10-13, 4.42) vs. Indians (Fausto Carmona, 6-5, 4.40), 7:05 p.m. ET
• Thursday: Off-day
• Friday: Tigers (Zach Miner, 7-4, 3.61) vs. Royals (Kyle Davies, 5-5, 4.81), 7:05 p.m. ET