Indians fall to Weaver

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Jered Weaver, staked to a seven-run lead after two innings, earned his first win in more than a month as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians 7-0 on Wednesday night.

Weaver (12-11) retired 21 of the 22 batters he faced over seven innings to snap the longest losing streak of his career at four games. He is 1-4 in seven starts since defeating Detroit 4-2 on Aug. 6.

The right-hander struck out seven to take over the AL lead with 218, four more than Seattle’s Felix Hernandez. He retired the first 11 men he faced until Shin-Soo Choo hit a sharp single past second baseman Howie Kendrick with two outs in the fourth. That gave the outfielder a .476 (10 for 21) career average against the Angels ace.

The Angels got three singles and three walks off Jeanmar Gomez (3-4) to take a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Juan Rivera had an RBI single, Kendrick walked with the bases loaded and rookie Hank Conger got his first career hit, a two-run single.

A throwing error by Indians third baseman Jayson Nix in the second inning helped Los Angeles go ahead 7-0. Torii Hunter had an RBI single and scored on Hideki Matsui’s triple off the wall in center. Rivera singled home Matsui.

Weaver set down the last 10 Indians he faced. He struck out the side in the fifth, throwing 14 of 19 pitches for strikes.

Weaver has pitched 204 innings, seven shy of his career high set a year ago.

Michael Brantley got a one-out single in the ninth off Angels reliever Matt Palmer to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games. Asdrubal Cabrera then hit into a game-ending double play.