Tribe celebrates Santana’s birthday, first win of 2012 season

April 8, 2012 at 5:09p.m.

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Carlos Santana hit two home runs on his 26th birthday, Derek Lowe pitched seven strong innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Sunday for their first win.

Santana opened the second inning with a drive over the wall in center. He connected a second time off Joel Carreno (0-1) in the fifth, a two-run shot to right that broke a 2-all tie.

It was Santana’s second career multihomer game. He other came Sept. 13 at Texas.

On his last four birthdays, including two years in the minors, Santana is 10 for 17 with five homers and 13 RBIs.

Lowe (1-0) got 15 outs on grounders and allowed two unearned runs in his Indians debut. Edwin Encarnacion had an RBI double and Brett Lawrie a sacrifice fly as Toronto tied it at 2 in the fourth.

Chris Perez pitched a shaky ninth for the save. Toronto loaded the bases, but Perez got slugger Jose Bautista to pop to Cabrera to end it.