CLEVELAND -- The first time Jake Westbrook faced the Tigers this season he didn't leave behind a body of work that he'd describe as memorable.

Yet as ugly as that April 9 outing in Detroit had been, Westbrook might surely prefer it to the one he crafted Wednesday night in his 10-3 loss to the Tigers.

In his own words, the outing at The Jake was a nightmare.

"The bottom line is, I stunk," Westbrook said. "That's kinda the way the score showed."

The score did show that, if not more.

It was, for Westbrook, an outing that he'd like to file in the trash can and hope that no one finds it while picking through the mess.

"He didn't have his best stuff," manager Eric Wedge said of Westbrook. "He kinda pitched away from his strengths.

"He was working from behind a little bit, and he wasn't quite as aggressive as he normally was. They got themselves in hitter's counts and did a good job against him."

Starting in the first inning, the Tigers jumped ahead in the count often against Westbrook.

OK, so they didn't do much against Westbrook in that inning after his leadoff walk to Brandon Inge. A double play ended any threat the walk to Inge might have generated.

No double play would spare Westbrook in the second, though.

His troubles started as soon as he hit Dmitri Young with a one-out pitch. Three doubles and a popup later, the Tigers had built a 3-0 lead, which would turn out to be only a temporary score.

Because in the nightmarish third, the sinkerballing Westbrook (0-5, 6.35 ERA) would see the Tigers open the floodgates.

Ivan Rodriguez, who led off the inning, was the first Tiger to tattoo one of Westbrook's sinkers. He singled to left-center. Carlos Guillen then doubled to right. One out and one run later, Young singled home a run. Craig Monroe cleared the bases with homer, which put the Tigers ahead, 7-0.

Monroe's homer came on a 3-1 pitch.

"I think he tried to be a little too fine at times," Wedge said of Westbrook. "As I said, he wasn't quite as aggressive with his sinker -- maybe tried to be too fine with his sinker and worked a little bit behind.

"He had to come in, and they were ready. It's a good hitting team."

Westbrook couldn't argue to the contrary. He's seen the Tigers knock him around for 17 runs in 4 1/3 innings over two starts this season. So if Wedge said that he was trying to be too fine, Westbrook had to accept that critique as gospel.

"Sometimes I do try to be too fine instead of trusting my stuff," he said. "That might've been the case tonight. But I just wasn't good; that's the bottom line."

After Monroe's homer, Westbrook would go on to give up two more earned runs before giving way to the Indians bullpen. It inherited a 9-0 deficit, courtesy of Westbrook's worst outing as a Major Leaguer.

"Whatever I was trying to do, it really wasn't working," said Westbrook, whose record fell to 0-5 with a 6.35 ERA. "I don't know what to say. It was kinda one of those games that everything just kinda snowballed on me.

"It's just not what you wanna do."