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Indians walk off with victory in 13th
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
Cleveland Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera takes the throw in time to tag out Detroit Tigers' Austin Jackson (14) trying to steal second base in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 30, 2011, in Cleveland.
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
Orlando Cabrera lined an RBI single in the 13th inning that gave the Cleveland Indians their 12th straight home win, 3-2 over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.
A day after Carlos Santana hit a game-winning grand slam in the ninth, the Indians went extra innings to extend their best home streak since a 13-game stretch in 1996. Cabrera singled to deep center with the bases loaded and one out.
Cleveland won its fifth in a row and finished with its best April record ever at 18-8. Detroit lost its fifth straight game.
Michael Brantley singled sharply to open the Cleveland 13th and went to second on a wild pickoff throw by Brayan Villareal (1-1). Asdrubal Cabrera put down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by catcher Alex Avila — third baseman Brandon Inge had also come in on the play, and nobody was covering the bag.
Avila threw to first for the out, then Tigers manager Jim Leyland ordered intentional walks to both Shin-Soo Choo and Santana to load the bases. Cabrera won it on the first pitch he saw.
Tony Sipp (1-0) worked two scoreless innings for the win.
The teams combined for 29 strikeouts, 17 by Tigers pitching.
Alex White pitched well in his major league debut for Cleveland, leaving after six innings with the score tied at 2.
The 22-year-old from the University of North Carolina became the ninth player — and eighth pitcher — from the 2009 draft to play in the majors. He fell behind 2-0 on fourth-inning home runs by Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Raburn.
The Indians got a solo shot from Santana in the fourth and Brantley tied it by leading off the sixth with a drive just inside the right-field foul pole for his first of the season.
Cleveland loaded the bases later in the inning on singles by Choo and Orlando Cabrera and two-out walk to Jack Hannahan. Matt LaPorta, already with two hits off Rick Porcello, hit a drive to deep center that Austin Jackson caught.
White gave up six hits and two runs over six innings. The crowd of 26,433 was Cleveland’s largest since an opening-day sellout of 41,721. The walk-up of 8,059 was third largest since Progressive Field opened in 1994.
Rockies 4, Pirates 1.
DENVER
Jason Hammel shook off a leadoff home run to pitch seven strong innings and Chris Iannetta backed him with a three-run homer.
Hammel (3-1) allowed six hits, including Andrew McCutchen’s eighth career homer to start a game.
But Hammel kept the Pirates in check after that, striking out four and walking two. He also benefited from a Rockies defense that turned three double plays.
Rafael Betancourt pitched a scoreless eighth and Huston Street got the final three outs for his NL-leading 10th save in 10 chances.