Sabathia-Santana matchup is king, but Tribe rules the night

Cleveland won its fifth straight, with Asdrubal Cabrera and Victor Martinez hitting home runs.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Johan Santana doesn’t frighten the Cleveland Indians at all.

Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera’s two-run homer and Victor Martinez’s solo shot in a four-run first helped C.C. Sabathia finally get win No. 15 as the first-place Indians won their fifth straight, 4-3 over the Twins Wednesday night.

Santana (14-10) dropped to 0-4 this season against the Indians, already the only team to beat the All-Star three times in the same year. The left-hander gave up 10 hits, matching a career-high, but shook off an atrocious first and managed to stay in as long as Sabathia (15-7).

Damage done early

The Indians, though, did their damage early against the two-time Cy Young winner and completed a three-game sweep of the Twins, who came in riding a season-high five-game winning streak.

The defending AL Central champions fell 8 1/2 games behind Cleveland and only play the Indians three more times.

Joe Borowski rarely has a routine save, and had another interesting one for his league-leading 39th.

He gave up a leadoff single in the ninth before Nick Punto fouled out to the catcher trying to sacrifice. Pinch-hitter Brian Buscher, who hit his first career homer off Borowski on Tuesday, grounded into a game-ending double play.

Sabathia had been stuck at 14 wins since Aug. 3. The lefty allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, a nearly identical line to his five previous starts this month. But the Indians haven’t been scoring for their All-Star, vying to become Cleveland’s first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry in 1974.

He’s hot

Cabrera started at shortstop in place of Jhonny Peralta, who is just 3-for-28 with 22 strikeouts against Santana. The hot-hitting Cabrera has sparked Cleveland since replacing second baseman Josh Barfield. The Indians have gone 10-3 with Cabrera in their starting lineup.

Santana, who has pitched at least five innings in 119 straight games dating to May 29, 2004, was in danger of being chased in the first.

The Indians scored four runs on six hits their first time up against Santana.

Grady Sizemore singled and Cabrera followed with his second homer, a liner to left that barely cleared the wall and clanged off a metal railing. One out later, Martinez connected for his 21st homer, another hard smash off the usually dominant Santana, who has given up an AL-leading 29 homers this season.

Franklin Gutierrez doubled with two outs and Kenny Lofton singled home Cleveland’s fourth run, giving Sabathia a rare cushion. The Indians had scored just 18 runs in his previous seven starts, a span where he went 1-3 with three no-decisions.

Self-help

Sabathia helped himself in the second when he barehanded Jason Tyner’s hard comebacker and began a 1-6-3 double play.

The Twins finally pushed a run across in the fifth, loading the bases with one out before Torii Hunter’s fielder’s choice made it 4-1. But Sabathia stopped any possible rally by striking out Justin Morneau.

Minnesota closed within 4-2 in the sixth on Mike Redmond’s RBI single, and crept within 4-3 in the when Michael Cuddyer tripled off Rafael Betancourt and scored on Rondell White’s groundout.