Indians win the snow-out make-up

Cleveland remained the best home team with a 5-2 win over the Mariners.

CLEVELAND (AP) — One hefty snowstorm and 45 days later, the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners finally played nine innings.

Casey Blake homered and Josh Barfield had two RBIs as the Indians remained baseball’s best home team with a 5-2 win Monday night over the Mariners, who are about to rack up some frequent flyer miles.

The game was a makeup of the April 6 home opener at Jacobs Field, which was called after the clubs played 4 2-3 innings in a snowstorm that dumped more than 2 feet on the ballpark and caused the entire four-game series to be postponed.

“I had seen some bad weather here, but nothing like that,” said Mariners first baseman Ben Broussard, who played five seasons in Cleveland. “It just kept snowing. It was hard to believe. We were here four days and didn’t do anything.”

Blake’s fourth homer, a two-out shot off Cha Seung Baek (1-2), snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth and Barfield’s two-run double in the seventh gave the Indians a 4-1 lead. Grady Sizemore added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Great home record

Cleveland improved to 17-4 at home, with two of those wins coming in Milwaukee when the club had to move a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels under Miller Park’s retractable roof in April.

Tom Mastny (3-1) took over for starter C.C. Sabathia and got the win.

Sabathia allowed one run and eight hits in five innings. He walked one and struck four, recording his 1,000th career strikeout in the fifth when he fanned Ichiro Suzuki for the second time.

The Mariners loaded the bases in the ninth on a double, walk and single off reliever Roberto Hernandez. Closer Joe Borowski came on and got Suzuki to hit into an RBI forceout before getting Jose Vidro to pop up and Jose Guillen to ground out for his 14th save.

Seattle began a 6,273-mile, four-city trip with its fifth loss in six games.

The Indians billed the delayed matchup as “Opening Day 3” and the club even tried to duplicate some of the blustery conditions that transformed Jacobs Field into a colossal snow globe last month.

Artificial snowmaking machines, perched atop the pedestrian walkway beyond left field, produced flurries that tumbled softly onto fans — a few of them wearing Santa Claus hats — as they arrived.

Ice sculptures, too

There were ice sculptures in the plaza between the Jake and Quicken Loans Arena, and the club gave away snow tractors and ski weekends at a nearby resort.

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove remains displeased with Major League Baseball’s rescheduling of the series. Seattle has to make two more trips back to Cleveland, and the clubs will play a doubleheader on Sept. 26 when the Indians make their only trip to Seattle.

“I think we got the short end of the stick,” he said. “The way they decided to make it up is not good.”

The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the first off Baek on Victor Martinez’s two-out RBI single.

Seattle tied it in the fourth when Jose Lopez, at the plate with two strikes on him when the April 6 game was stopped, singled home in Kenji Johjima, who led off with a double.arfield, who made a quick throw to Victor Martinez and Cleveland’s catcher did a nice job of blocking Guillen from the plate.