Sabathia nabs 12th as Indians win 8-6

The Tribe ace is 7-1 with a 2.62 ERA over his last 10 starts.

CLEVELAND (AP) — C.C. Sabathia became the majors’ first 12-game winner and Grady Sizemore drove in three runs to lead the Cleveland Indians to an 8-6 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Saturday night.

Sabathia (12-2) matched last season’s win total, and is 7-1 with a 2.62 ERA in his last 10 starts.

The Indians, with baseball’s best home record at 29-12, won for the fifth time in six games to take a 11⁄2 game lead over Detroit in the AL Central. The Devil Rays have lost six straight and 13 of 17.

Sabathia, a lock to make his third All-Star team when the clubs are announced today, gave up two earned runs and six hits over seven innings to go to 9-1 in 12 home starts this season. He struck out eight without a walk for the second straight game and third time in June. For the month, he went 4-1 with three walks and 41 strikeouts.

The Devil Rays threatened in the ninth. After Raul Casanova hit a two-run homer and Dustan Mohr followed with his first since being called up on June 22, Joe Borowski came on to get the final two outs on six pitches for his 23rd save in 25 chances.

Sizemore had three hits and put Cleveland ahead with a two-out, two-run single in the second inning against J.P. Howell (1-2). Howell allowed five runs and eight hits over 4 1-3 innings.

The Indians made it 4-0 in the fourth. Josh Barfield got an RBI on a forceout, stole second and scored on another single by Sizemore.

D-Ray domination

Sabathia improved to 7-1 in 10 career starts against the Devil Rays and hasn’t lost to them since 2004. He retired 12 of the first 13 he faced until yielding three hits and two runs in the fifth — snapping Tampa Bay’s scoreless streak against the left-hander at Jacobs Field at 31 innings.

One run scored on a sacrifice fly by Casanova. Franklin Gutierrez’s wild throw from right field on the play allowed Josh Wilson to go from first to second, then score on a single by Dustan Mohr. The unearned run made it 4-2.

Travis Hafner’s 13th homer in the bottom half made it 5-2. It was his third homer in six games after going 68 at-bats without one.

Delmon Young doubled off the third-base bag in the sixth and scored on Ty Wigginton’s grounder just out of the reach of shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Sabathia then struck out Jonny Gomes and Jorge Cantu to keep the score 5-3.

Casey Blake singled home two runs and Peralta added another RBI single in Cleveland’s sixth.

The left-hander has allowed 20 runs in 262⁄3 innings over five starts since winning his season debut on June 3.