A.L. CENTRAL Lee has just enough in Cleveland's 9-7 victory



Grady Sizemore's two-run homer led the Indians' offense.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cliff Lee reached into his locker and then tossed some sneakers and a few personal items into a cardboard box readied for shipment.
A little earlier, Lee showed he hadn't packed in the season.
Lee won for the second time since July 16 and rookie Grady Sizemore hit a two-run homer, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 9-7 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night.
Lee (12-8) made it through 5 2/3 innings, allowing five runs and eight hits. The performance wasn't pretty, but the left-hander, who opened the season 10-1, will take it after going 1-7 with a 10.03 ERA in his previous 11 outings.
"I went from doing real good to real bad," Lee said, attempting to explain his second-half slide. "I've got to figure out how to cut those stretches short."
Sizemore homered in the fifth inning as the Indians built a 7-2 lead and hung on to snap a four-game losing streak against the playoff-bound Twins.
Three below .500
Josh Bard homered and had three RBIs, and Coco Crisp drove in two runs for Cleveland (75-78), which still has its sights set on second place and .500.
"We've got to finish strong," Ben Broussard said. "You don't want to end on a bad note."
Rafael Betancourt gave up an RBI single to pinch-hitter Justin Morneau in the ninth before getting Terry Tiffee to ground out for his fourth save.
Minnesota rookie J.D. Durbin (0-1) didn't make it out of the fourth inning of his first career start. The Twins have lost three in a row since qualifying for the postseason, but manager Ron Gardenhire isn't too concerned.
"We had an emotional series in Chicago," he said. "You know there is going to be a little bit of a letdown. But I like the way we kept battling. Hopefully, that will carry over and we'll get over this little funk and start winning some ball games."
Small crowd
The atmosphere was much different from when the clubs last met in a series at Jacobs Field. In mid-August, the Indians pulled within one game of first-place Minnesota and the three-game series at Jacobs Field attracted more than 100,000.
The Twins won the series finale and never looked back in the AL Central, clinching their third straight division title earlier this week.
Only 18,053 were on hand for the first game of Cleveland's final four-game homestand.
Lee gave them something to savor in the off-season with a solid outing to build on for 2005. The lefty has won two of his last three starts, a positive finish following nearly two months of failure.
"I've been humbled," said the 26-year-old lefty. "I started out cruising pretty good. But the hitters started adjusting to me, started to figure me out and I didn't do a good job of handling that."