BALTIMORE (AP) — Through all the countless hours he spent rehabilitating an assortment of

BALTIMORE (AP) — Through all the countless hours he spent rehabilitating an assortment of injuries, Scott Lewis never abandoned hope of pitching in the major leagues.

The sacrifices he made over the past five years paid off Wednesday night, when Lewis allowed three hits over eight shutout innings in his major league debut to help the Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-1.

Lewis (1-0) struck out three, walked none and retired the final eight batters he faced in a 96-pitch performance — 67 of which were strikes. He came three outs short of becoming the first Cleveland pitcher since Luis Tiant in 1964 to throw a shutout in his major league debut.

Being pulled with a 7-0 lead didn’t bother him one bit.

“I can’t be disappointed about anything today,” he said. “I only pitched eight innings once before and that was a complete game loss.”

Lewis underwent elbow ligament replacement surgery while at Ohio State in 2003 before being drafted in the third round by Cleveland in 2004. He was limited to six starts in 2005 because of biceps tendinitis, then spent most of the 2006 season on a limited pitch count before finally pitching a full season last year with Double-A Akron.

This spring training, however, Lewis strained a back muscle and was forced to stay in extended spring training until early June. He combined to go 8-4 with a 2.53 ERA for Akron and Triple-A Buffalo before finally making his way to the Indians.

Kelly Shoppach hit two solo homers and scored three runs for the Indians, who came in with a season-high six-game homerless drought. It was the catcher’s third multi-homer game of the season.

Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run double and Grady Sizemore followed with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.