Sabathia snaps winless skid

The Tribe's ace limited the Rangers to four hits in eight innings.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- C.C. Sabathia pulled up his socks and gave the Cleveland Indians an even bigger lift.
Sabathia won for the first time in seven starts, allowing four hits and one unearned run in eight innings in a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
"I just wanted to change things up a little," said Sabathia (1-2), who also wore his socks high for the last half of 2002 -- when he went 7-2 with a 2.54 ERA to finish 13-11 for the season.
"Everybody in the family was telling me to wear the socks up, so I did. They're going to stay up."
The left-hander, the ace of the Indians' rotation this year at age 22, struck out five and walked three, improving to 4-0 in four career starts against Texas. Danys Baez finished with a hitless ninth for his fifth save.
"I don't try to seal games myself," Sabathia said about being lifted. "Things can really get wild then. I try to bend, but not break. I know I'm not going to pitch a shutout all the time."
Little margin for error
But with the Indians averaging just 3.2 runs in his starts, Sabathia has had little margin for error.
"I was more concerned about my team winning than my individual stats," he said. "I focus more about shutting down the other team than what my guys do."
Cleveland, which turned two double plays behind Sabathia, had been 0-6 in his starts this season. It was his first victory since last Sept. 27 against Kansas City, and his longest outing since an eight-inning, complete-game loss Sept. 17 at Boston.
"It's not like I have been giving up eight or nine runs a game," Sabathia said. "When I got a lead, I knew it was my job to hold it against a very difficult lineup."
Texas had 54 runs, 78 hits and 13 homers in its previous six games.
John Thomson (2-3) lost despite pitching a five-hitter for his first complete game since September 2001.
"Other than one inning, John pitched well," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "We put some guys on base against Sabathia, but didn't put him in any peril."
Slow start
Thomson retired nine in a row before Cleveland got three singles, two walks and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-0 lead in the fourth.
Matt Lawton walked and came around on singles by Omar Vizquel and Ellis Burks. Karim Garcia hit an RBI single, Josh Bard drew a one-out walk to load the bases and Bill Selby hit a sacrifice fly.
Thomson questioned his approach in the fourth.
"I was throwing fastballs for strikes the first three innings," the right-hander said. "Then I threw sinkers for balls, falling behind 1-0 and 2-0.
"Why would I try to do something different?" Thomson said as he shrugged his shoulders.
Thomson then threw 26 strikes on 27 pitches during a stretch between the fifth and seventh innings.
An error by Vizquel helped Texas score in the sixth. Michael Young went to second when Vizquel fielded his slow roller and threw wildly to first. Carl Everett followed with an RBI single.
On the next play, Vizquel went deep into the hole at shortstop to field a sharp grounder by Juan Gonzalez and force Everett at second.
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