Santana leads Indians past Bucs in opener

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

These days, all it takes is one effective inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Carlos Santana reached base four times and hit an RBI double during a four-run seventh to help the Cleveland Indians extend Pittsburgh’s second-longest losing streak in 55 years to 12 games with a 4-3 win Friday night.

Fausto Carmona won his second consecutive start, and Santana capped the only inning in which the Indians scored by driving in Trevor Crowe to put Cleveland up 4-0.

“It’s just like, ‘The seal’s been broken, now we can get going,” said Crowe, who also had an RBI single. “Especially after it’d taken five or six innings to get there.”

The Pirates have the majors’ longest losing streak this season. The Indians snapped a four-game losing streak that was the longest active one in the American League.

Neil Walker and Garrett Jones each had two hits and Ryan Church had a three-run double for the Pirates, who tied the franchise’s second-longest longest single-season losing streak since at least 1900.

“Everybody’s ... frustrated that this losing is going on,” Church said. “It’s one of those things when you go out and finally get that one and end this streak, then we can move on.”

Pittsburgh lost 13 straight in 2006 and 14 straight from September 1954-April 1955.

The game between last-place teams from two cities that are rivals in football and only a two-hour drive apart matched the team with the least number of wins in the National League against the one with tied for the second-fewest victories in the American League. Nevertheless, it drew a crowd of 28,478 — fourth-largest of the season at PNC Park.

Carmona and Paul Maholm cruised through six shutout innings each, allowing only two hits apiece. But both were forced from the game during a the seventh, when all the game’s runs were scored.

Jhonny Peralta led off the top of the inning with a liner high off the 21-foot wall in right, just beating the throw into second for a double.

After one out, Anderson Hernandez and Donald hit consecutive singles to right, the latter scoring Peralta. After Maholm (4-5) struck out Carmona, Crowe and Shin-Soo Choo added RBI singles, ending Maholm’s night. He had two walks and five strikeouts.

Santana then doubled off of Joel Hanrahan, scoring Crowe — but Choo was thrown out at the plate easily.

Carmona (6-5) did not record an out in facing four batters in the seventh, leaving after Church’s bases-clearing double to left-center. He had seven strikeouts.