INDIANS Davis starts strong as Tribe holds on against Red Sox

Milton Bradley drove in three runs with a pair of doubles for Cleveland.
BOSTON (AP) -- The Boston Red Sox tuned up for Roger Clemens' first try at his 300th win by losing to a rookie with five major league victories.
Jason Davis pitched into the eighth inning and Milton Bradley drove in three runs with a pair of doubles Sunday as the Cleveland Indians beat the Red Sox, 6-4.
The loss kept Boston's AL East lead at 11/2 games over the Yankees, who lost to Toronto. The Red Sox open a three-game series in New York today when Clemens goes for his milestone.
"If you can't get up for that, I don't know what will do it," said Johnny Damon, who had two of the six hits off Davis. "I don't think we want to be on all the classic TV shows with Roger so let's try to beat them."
Strong pitching
Davis (4-4) was a tough opponent Sunday.
"Working into the eighth in Boston gives a pitcher a lot of confidence," he said. "I knew it was my job today to establish my fastball and keep them out of rallies."
The 23-year-old Davis never went more than seven innings in his other 11 major league starts. But he retired 17 straight batters on a team that hit .317 in its previous 23 games. Of his 95 pitches, 65 were strikes.
Boston rallied for three runs in the eighth, when Nomar Garciaparra extended his hitting streak to 25 games -- longest in the majors this year. He was 0-for-2 to that point.
The Red Sox had runners at second and third, but the Indians decided not to walk Garciaparra with a 6-1 lead.
"You can't put that run on first base," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "Jason handled Nomar pretty well throughout the course of the game."
Shutting them down
Davis didn't allow a baserunner between Damon's double in the third and his single with two outs in the eighth.
Boston scored at least five runs in the first inning of the first two games, 9-2 and 12-3 Red Sox wins.
"Today we wanted to start fast, then put the game in J.D.'s hands," Bradley said.
Davis allowed four runs in 72/3 innings. He struck out four and did not walk a batter. Danys Baez got three outs for his ninth save in 12 tries.
The Indians went ahead 2-0 in the first against Casey Fossum (4-3) on a two-run double by Bradley. In his last start, Fossum allowed five runs in the first inning.
Davis gave up just three hits through the first seven innings, and two led to a first-inning run. Todd Walker singled, went to second when Garciaparra was hit by a pitch and scored on Kevin Millar's single.
"That's the way Jason has pitched his last couple of games," Cleveland DH Ellis Burks said. "He can be a very special pitcher for us."
Cleveland made it 4-1 in the third on a single by Burks, an RBI double by Bradley and a sacrifice fly by Shane Spencer.