Thursday, May 22, 2003
Ace pitcher C.C. Sabathia left the game with Detroit that Cleveland won, 4-0.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- C.C. Sabathia tripped himself up.
Cleveland's ace left-hander pitched six innings before leaving with a sprained left ankle as the Indians sent the Detroit Tigers to their ninth shutout loss, 4-0 Wednesday night.
"It's sore, but I'm all right," Sabathia said. "I'll be putting plenty of ice on it and, hopefully, won't miss any time."
Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said he was originally quite concerned because the injury was to Sabathia's push-off leg.
Wedge's hope
"C.C. was fantastic," Wedge said. "He had very good command, especially of his fastball, and you sure hope it is not serious and he's going to be OK."
Shane Spencer drove in two runs for Cleveland, which won three in a row for the first time this year and has five victories in its last six games.
Detroit lost its seventh straight, its longest slide since opening the season 0-9.
The Tigers are a major league-worst 9-35.
"I'm at a loss for words," Alan Trammell said of managing a team that has been shut out as many times as it has won. "Nobody likes to get shut out."
Sabathia (3-2) was working on a three-hitter when he collided with Detroit's Dmitri Young at first base on the final out of the Tigers' sixth.
Young, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound designated hitter, hit a grounder to first baseman Ben Broussard.
As Sabathia ran over to grab the throw, he crashed into Young, who was called out as he tumbled into foul territory.
"We were both going hard, and he got there late and stepped on my foot," said Young, whose left ankle was wrapped with ice.
Sabathia struck out five and walked two, and is 3-0 in seven starts since April 12.
Another scare
He narrowly avoided serious injury in the fifth when he ducked inches under a line single by Tigers rookie Eric Munson.
"I saw it all the way, it was kind of chuck and duck," Sabathia said. "It's not tough to duck when you see a baseball coming right at you."
Rookie Billy Traber and Jason Boyd each pitched an inning. Danys Baez finished the seven-hitter, striking out three batters after allowing a single by Young and double by Craig Monroe.
Cleveland took a 3-0 lead in the third against Jeremy Bonderman (2-7).
Matt Lawton hit a one-out double and scored on a single by Omar Vizquel. Ellis Burks and Milton Bradley then walked, loading the bases. Spencer singled off Munson's glove at third base to drive in two runs.
Lawton made it 4-0 with an RBI single in the fourth.
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