Marson slam beats Angels

Associated Press

ANAHEIM, Calif.

Indians catcher Lou Marson hasn’t allowed his struggles in the batter’s box this season to interfere with his solid work behind the plate.

Marson broke the game open in the sixth with his first career grand slam after Travis Hafner led off the inning with a go-ahead homer that was upheld by video replay, and Cleveland beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-1 on Tuesday night.

“Lou has to work on his offensive game, obviously, but defensively he’s been one of the best catchers in the league. He’s been tremendous,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He not only is throwing guys out, but he’s also done a good job of blocking balls and calling the ballgame. And he knows our pitching staff, because some of these guys who are up here now were with him in Triple-A after he went down. He’s done a great job leading those guys.”

Marson threw out Bobby Abreu trying to steal second base in the fourth inning, temporarily preventing Abreu from reaching 20 steals for the 12th straight season. Marson then threw out Torii Hunter at third for the first out of the seventh with the Angels down by five runs. Marson’s percentage of runners thrown out is an AL-best 36.5 (23 for 63).

“I take pride in my defense and my throwing,” Marson said. “That, and running the pitching staff, is my number one job.”

Hunter has been thrown out five times in his eight attempts to steal third base this season.

“It kind of caught me off guard, and maybe that’s what he was trying to do,” Marson said. “It was 6-1 at the time, so it surprised me. But I’ll take it. The pitchers holding runners on has a lot to do with it. It all comes down to them getting the ball to me in the least amount of time.”