Yanks rout Cleveland; SS Peralta is traded

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Alex Rodriguez had two hits, but not homer No. 600, to support another sharp outing by a resurgent A.J. Burnett and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 8-0 Wednesday night.

Burnett (9-8) earned his third win in four starts, the only blemish coming in a start in which he cut his hands hitting a door out of frustration. On Wednesday he allowed seven hits over 61/3 innings as the Yankees improved the best record in the majors with their sixth win in eight games — and AL-leading ninth shutout.

Mark Teixeira had a two-run single and Brett Gardner a pair of run-scoring singles as the Yankees built a 7-0 lead. Robinson Cano hit his 19th homer leading off the fourth to make it 8-0.

Before the game the Indians traded third baseman Jhonny Peralta to the Detroit Tigers for minor league left-hander Giovanni Soto.

The 28-year-old Peralta is in the final season of a five-year, $13 million contract. He’s making $4.6 million this season and the club has a $7 million option for 2011.

“The stark reality was we had come to the decision we were not going to pick up his option for next year,” Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said.

The 19-year-old Soto has spent the entire season at Class-A West Michigan and will be assigned to Class-A Lake County. He is 6-6 with a 2.61 ERA in 16 starts.

Infielder Luis Valbuena was called up from Triple-A Columbus to take Peralta’s roster spot.

Shapiro said infielder Jared Goedert, who is batting .304 with 17 homers at Columbus, will be called up this season.

“We wanted to take a look at some of our internal alternatives at third base for next year,” Shapiro said.

The Yankees’ Rodriguez didn’t come close to getting his elusive 600th homer, though he went 2 for 5 with a run-scoring single in the first inning off Fausto Carmona (10-8).

Most of the crowd of 22,965 left after Rodriguez flied out to right to end the eighth inning.

Rodriguez’s sharp grounder up the middle on a 3-1 pitch in the first scored Teixeira for a 1-0 lead. Teixeira was on a second with a double.

Curtis Granderson had two hits including an RBI triple off Carmona, giving him a .444 (16 for 36) average against the right-hander.

Burnett struck out seven and walked three as he continued his roller-coaster season. The right-hander opened the year 4-0 and had a 6-2 record after beating the Indians on May 30 in New York. The 33-year-old then lost five consecutive decisions before his recent resurgence.

Burnett finally won in Cleveland. He had been 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA in four previous starts at Progressive Field, none of them with New York.

Joba Chamberlain came on after Burnett issued a one-out walk to Andy Marte in the seventh. He balked Marte to second, but got the next two batters easily. Sergio Mitre worked the eighth and ninth to complete the eight-hitter.

Carmona was pounded for seven runs and 10 hits over 22/3 innings. It was the worst start of the season by the AL All-Star who was looking to win four in a row for first time since finishing the 2007 season with five consecutive wins.

Rodriguez hit his 501st homer off Carmona on Aug. 10, 2007, and followed with two more the next night in Cleveland — and has since gone 9 for 45 without a homer in his last 12 games at Progressive Field.

Rain delayed the start 42 minutes.