Bacon, Red Bull, Jimenez lift weary Tribe

Associated Press

cleveland

A long night at the ballpark left the Cleveland Indians weary and drenched.

A solution, however, was easy to find.

“Everybody’s tired,” joked Indians manager Terry Francona. “It’s amazing ... show up, have 12 pieces of bacon and a Red Bull and go get ‘em.”

While the pregame meal may have played a factor in Saturday’s 5-0 win over Tampa Bay, the Indians found other reasons that led to their success. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched eight scoreless innings while Jason Giambi and Asdrubal Cabrera hit two-run homers in the game that began about 10 hours following the conclusion of Friday night’s contest that ended at 2:53 a.m. on Saturday after nearly five hours of rain delays.

Despite his big day, which included and RBI single in the third, Giambi admitted he was exhausted.

“I’m delirious right now,” he said. “I feel like Pinocchio with no strings. My last two at-bats I thought about bunting because of the bat speed that I have, but then I said, I have to run. I was done.”

Jimenez (4-3) gave the Indians exactly what they needed. The right-hander allowed four hits and struck out seven in stopping Tampa Bay’s six-game winning streak. The Rays, who rolled to a 9-2 win earlier Saturday morning, had only two runners reach second base.

“On a day where the only two people probably out there who weren’t tired were the starting pitchers, he gave us every bit what we needed,” Francona said.

Giambi homered in his third straight game to give the Indians a 2-0 lead in the second. He added an RBI single in third while Cabrera’s two-run blast came in the fifth.

Tampa Bay right-hander Chris Archer (0-1), called up from Triple A-Durham before the game, allowed five runs in four innings. He faced three batters in the fifth and was pulled after Nick Swisher lined a single off his glove following Cabrera’s home run. The force of the blow knocked Archer to the ground. He was uninjured but was removed by manager Joe Maddon.

No one could blame either team for feeling tired after a long night at the ballpark Friday when three rain delays totaling 4:49 pushed a game that began on the last day of May into the early hours of the first day in June. Neither team took batting practice on the field Saturday for the game that began at 1:05 p.m.

“It’s part of the job,” Swisher said. “It’s what we get paid to do. We were here early this morning. Guys were pumped up. We had the music blasting. We needed a win like this, especially with the way early this morning ended.”

Maddon admitted his team was dragging a bit.

“Our guys legitimately were tired today and I don’t blame them,” he said. “I really respected their effort today. It was a tough day to come back and play this game. We’ll get a good night’s sleep and come back and do well tomorrow.”