Have a cigar! Indians win fourth straight

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Aaron Laffey enjoyed his first win in 10 months.

It isn’t even close to being No. 1 on his thrill list for the week.

One day after the birth of his first son, Laffey (1-2) allowed one run over six-plus innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.

“With runners on base or when I was behind in the count, I thought, ‘Come on, your son was born yesterday, you can’t give in,’ so it was part inspiration for me,” Laffey said.

The left-hander gave up five hits and struck out five. He was 0-8 in nine starts and 29 appearances at the major league level since beating Minnesota last Aug. 16.

Matt LaPorta and Shin-Soo Choo hit solo home runs for Cleveland, which matched its longest win streak of the season following a season-worst seven-game losing streak. The Indians will seek their first four-game home sweep since May 25-28, 2009, against Tampa Bay, when they play host to the Blue Jays today.

Toronto has lost four straight and is 3-11 in its last 14 road games. The Blue Jays have been shut out twice and scored two or fewer runs five times in dropping eight of their last 10 overall.

“We just can’t score any runs,” manager Cito Gaston said. “We can’t get a big hit with guys on the bags.”

Gaston is looking forward to July after the Blue Jays went 9-17 in June.

“It’s got to be better than June,” he said. “It couldn’t be any worse.”

Laffey wasn’t at Progessive Field at all Tuesday after Braeden was born at 10:42 a.m. Laffey said he got plenty of rest anyway and felt comfortable in his second start since being recalled from the minors on Saturday. He was optioned to Triple-A Columbus on May 30.

“Laffey had a good sinker and slider,” manager Manny Acta said. “He did a good job and so did the bullpen.”

Chris Perez pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in 10 chances. He closed in place of Kerry Wood, who had three saves in three days.

Choo put Cleveland ahead 1-0 with a 422-foot home run off Jesse Litsch (0-3) with one out in the first.