Indians win on Santana’s slam

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

In 110 years, the Cleveland Indians have never enjoyed an April like this.

Their surprisingly good start took a new twist Friday night when Carlos Santana hit a grand slam with one out in the ninth inning to give the Indians a 9-5 win over the Detroit Tigers.

“Unbelievable,” said shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, whose two-run homer in the seventh tied it at 5 and put the Indians in position to extend their home winning streak to 11 games.

The Indians are an AL-best 17-8, surpassing 16 wins before May 1 for the first time in 111 years in the AL.

Santana and his teammates celebrated in rare fashion, too, after the switch-hitter drove a 3-1 pitch off Joaquin Benoit (0-1) over the right-field wall.

Santana flung his batting helmet high into the chilly air before leaping onto home plate and being engulfed by teammates, who could hardly wait for him to round the bases.

“I’m very excited,” Santana said after his first career slam — the seventh to end a game at Progressive Field and first since Jim Thome did it against Detroit in 2002.

Chris Perez (1-1) pitched one perfect inning for Cleveland’s fourth straight win. The Indians are unbeaten at home since April 2 — their longest streak there since winning 13 in a row in 1996.

“These guys are pulling for each other, everybody is contributing,” manager Manny Acta said. “I don’t remember the last time we scored against Benoit, but we did.”

Benoit took the Tigers’ fourth straight loss hard. Standing and staring at his locker, he turned to reporters and said, “Are you guys waiting for me? Keep waiting.” He then walked away.

The Indians walked off with the improbable win after overcoming deficits of 3-0 and 5-2.

Jack Hannahan singled to start the winning rally and was replaced by pinch-runner Adam Everett. Grady Sizemore’s line single to right sent Everett to third. During the at bat, Tigers manager Jim Leyland visited the mound to check on Benoit, who had a broken fingernail on his pitching hand clipped off by trainer Kevin Rand.

Benoit intentionally walked Cabrera and came back to strike out Shin-Soo Choo on three pitches before Santana delivered.

“I’m so happy for him because he’s been struggling a bit,” Cabrera said of Santana, who came to the plate hitting .183.

Matt LaPorta hit a solo homer off Tigers starter Max Scherzer to start the seventh. Later in the inning, Cabrera drove his two-run shot into the right-field seats on the first pitch after Leyland checked on Scherzer.

“He said he had plenty left,” Leyland said.