Thursday, June 21, 2007
C.C. Sabathia joins two other pitchers with 10 wins.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Casey Blake put Cleveland ahead with a two-run single in an eight-run sixth inning and the Indians beat the Philadelphia Phillies 10-6 Wednesday night.
C.C. Sabathia (10-2) pitched six innings to help Cleveland take two of three in the interleague series and remain tied with Detroit for the AL Central lead. Sabathia joined Josh Beckett of Boston and John Lackey of the Los Angeles Angels as the majors’ only 10-game winners.
Blake had a 26-game hitting streak — longest in the majors this year — halted Monday night.
Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta, Trot Nixon and Josh Barfield also drove in two runs each for Cleveland, which is only 9-10 in June but has not been out of first place since April 24.
Lieber strains ankle
Jon Lieber (3-5) left due to a strained right ankle after yielding Blake’s hit between short and third that put Cleveland ahead 5-4. Lieber gave up seven runs and 10 hits over 51⁄3 innings.
Lieber stumbled as he ran off the mound to back up home plate. He limped to the dugout and was replaced by Michael Sagurski. The left-hander gave up an RBI single to Martinez and walked Travis Hafner to load the bases.
Peralta hit a two-run double after right-hander Yoel Hernandez came on in relief. One out later, Nixon’s two-run double to right-center made it 10-4.
Sabathia gave up four runs and five hits to win for the first time in three starts since a five-hit, 1-0 triumph over Kansas City on June 5. The left-hander struck out four and walked one, improving to 7-1 at Jacobs Field. He has allowed only 10 walks in 921⁄3 innings since April 15.
Rod Barajas put the Phillies ahead in the third with a two-run homer, his fourth. Barajas is 6-for-14 (.429) with three homers in his career against Sabathia.
Cleveland put two runners on with none out in three of the first four innings, but Lieber allowed only two runs. Martinez had an RBI groundout in the third and Barfield tied it with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Ryan Howard’s two-out RBI double put the Phillies ahead 3-2 in the sixth. Howard scored on Aaron Rowand’s soft single to right.
Barfield’s RBI double made it 4-3 in the bottom half. Then Grady Sizemore was walked intentionally to bring up Blake.
Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino extended his streak to 13 games with a two-run double in the seventh against Tom Mastny.
Notes
A note on the Indians’ clubhouse message board reminded them to wear suits and ties this Friday for a tour of the White House and Capitol. Cleveland will play an interleague series in Washington — their last game there was a 3-2 loss on Sept. 22, 1971 before the Washington Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers in 1972. ... Sabathia has pitched at least six innings in 15 of 16 starts. He went five innings May 21 against Seattle.