Cabrera leads Indians to win

Associated Press

TORONTO

He’s only 24, but Asdrubal Cabrera is about the closest thing the Cleveland Indians have to a clubhouse leader these days. He showed why Sunday.

Cabrera hit a two-run homer, Jason Donald added a solo shot and the Indians beat the Blue Jays 5-4, their sixth win in seven games against Toronto.

“We played really good ball these last couple of games,” Cabrera said. “We want to play like that the whole rest of the season.”

Major league home run leader Jose Bautista, Aaron Hill and Yunel Escobar all hit solo homers for Toronto, but the Blue Jays lost for ninth time in 13 homes games against the Indians.

Cleveland has traded pitchers Jake Westbrook and Kerry Wood, outfielder Austin Kearns and infielder Jhonny Peralta in the past week, depleting the team of much of its veteran presence and leaving just two players (Shelley Duncan and Travis Hafner) over the age of 30.

When it comes to filling the leadership void, Indians manager Manny Acta said Cabrera “brings a lot to the table.”

“He’s the right guy to start leading these kids out here,” Acta said. “He’s been in the big leagues for close to four years, he’s been in the playoffs with the Indians. I’m expecting him to take a bigger role.”

Donald said he considers Cabrera a clubhouse role model.

“He’s got some time here,” Donald said. “He came up with Cleveland, he’s been in the big leagues for a couple of years. He’s a guy that we look to and he’s done a great job. He’s got a lot of energy and that’s a guy you can feed off of.”

Called up from Triple-A Columbus to make his second big league start on three days’ rest, right-hander Jeanmar Gomez (2-0) allowed two runs and five hits in five innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Five Cleveland relievers combined to work the final four innings. Tony Sipp pitched 12/3 innings, Frank Hermann got one out in the seventh, Rafael Perez got two outs in the eighth and Joe Smith got the third. Chris Perez wrapped it up in the ninth for his 12th save and second in two games.