Sabathia shuts down Mets

The Indians responded with a 9-1 victory at Shea Stadium.
NEW YORK (AP) -- C.C. Sabathia is confident the wins will come more frequently if he has more outings like the one he had against the New York Mets.
"I felt awesome ... my stuff was great," the 6-foot-7 left-hander said. "My fastball was exploding out of my hand. I just tried to stay calm and not overthrow."
Sabathia allowed one run and six hits in eight innings, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 9-1 victory Wednesday night.
"I want to be the guy that pitches in big games," Sabathia said. "I want to take the ball and win games for this team."
Nears .500 mark
Sabathia (4-3) shut down the Mets a night after they had 14 hits in a 7-2 win after firing batting coach Denny Walling. He struck out three and walked one, helping the Indians win for the ninth time in 12 games -- and move within a game of .500 at 31-32.
"We've been at one under before this season and we're there again," outfielder Coco Crisp said. "Hopefully we'll make it happen this time."
Sabathia lowered his ERA to 2.95, and has won his last two decisions.
"He's finally been able to get a couple of wins," manager Eric Wedge said. "He's pitched well all year with not a lot to show for it, as far as wins."
Rick White pitched the ninth to complete the six-hitter.
"Sabathia had good stuff tonight -- 97 [mph], changed speeds on his fastball and had a good changeup," Mets manager Art Howe said.
"But we had a bad night defensively, no doubt. It wasn't a performance you send home to momma."
Leading the way
Casey Blake hit a two-run homer, and Omar Vizquel and Victor Martinez each drove in two runs for the Indians. Sabathia also had one of Cleveland's 14 hits, a single in the second inning.
"I'm more excited about that than anything else," he said with a big smile.
Leading 2-1, the Indians broke it open with three runs in the sixth.
Blake led off with a double, went to third on Jody Gerut's single and scored one out later on a wild pitch by Matt Ginter (1-1).
Crisp followed with a grounder to the mound that Ginter fielded, but threw high to Mike Piazza -- pulling the first baseman off the bag. First-base umpire Mike DiMuro ruled Crisp was safe, bringing Howe out of the dugout. After a few minutes of arguing, Howe was tossed by DiMuro.
"Two close plays called against us cost us three runs," Howe said. "Mike came off the bag, but got his foot back on the bag. I'm sure."
Mike Stanton came in and struck out Sabathia, but walked Matt Lawton to load the bases and gave up a two-run single to Vizquel before getting Travis Hafner on a flyout to end it.
Three errors
Ginter allowed five runs -- three earned -- in 51/3 innings for the Mets, who made three errors to end a modest two-game winning streak.
"My control was there," Ginter said after his first major league loss. "They hit some good pitches. I just needed to go out there in the sixth and go 1-2-3. I didn't make it happen."
Sabathia got in trouble in the fifth, when the Mets had runners on second and third with one out, but he struck out Ginter looking and retired Gerald Williams on a groundout.
"He was all right," Mike Cameron said of Sabathia. "We hit a few balls at people, but today, we just gave them too many runs."