Everybody wants to know if the Cleveland Indians are for NFL Jerseys cheapreal. OK, maybe not everybody, judging by the spotty Oakland crowd of 10,135 on Tuesday night.
But with the best record in the game through early May, the Indians have at least piqued the curiosity of the baseball world. And in this venture West, they took an important first step toward conquering a demon with a 4-1 victory over the A's.
Cleveland survived a strong outing by Oakland starter Tyson Ross and broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run, ninth-inning rally against veteran reliever Brian Fuentes to log their 20th win of the year against just eight losses.
To be sure, there may be no better litmus test to
Steve Smith the Indians' legitimacy than a trip to Oakland, which has been one of Cleveland's chief chambers of horrors the past several years. The Indians have lost nine of their past 10 series here and came into Tuesday's opener of a three-game set just 8-23 at the Coliseum dating to 2003. They lost 10-0 and 11-0 in their only appearances last year.
But the Indians looked like the real deal on this night. Starter and winner Fausto Carmona (3-3) pitched eight innings of five-hit ball, allowing the A's a mere scratch fourth-inning run. Cleveland finally tied the score against Ross in the seventh, then broke through against Fuentes in the ninth.
Fuentes (1-3) followed up Michael Wuertz, who got the A's out of a seventh-inning jam and then pitched a scoreless eighth. He walked
Michael Brantley to open the ninth and picked him off, but Cleveland kept coming. Matt LaPorta and two former A's, Jack Hannahan and Orlando Cabrera, hit consecutive singles, Cabrera's hit putting the Indians in front 2-1.
Fuentes then hit Grady Sizemore with a pitch to load the bases, and Asdrubal Cabrera broke the game open with a two-run single. Chris Perez retired the A's in order in the bottom of the ninth for his eighth save.
The A's scored the first run in the bottom of the fourth against Carmona, but it wasn't the most impressive of rallies. Daric Barton opened with an opposite-field bloop single to left, and David DeJesus followed with an infield single over the mound. Hideki Matsui hit a dribbler to the mound that advanced the runners, and Kurt Suzuki's groundout to third scored Barton.
For awhile, it looked as if Ross might make thatLawrence Taylor Jersey run stand up. He pitched beautifully over the first six innings, and the Indians mounted just one threat, putting runners at first and third in the third inning with two out. But Ross retired Shin-Soo Choo on a fly to right to escape that jam.
Ross was the victim of some tough luck in the seventh, however. Carlos Santana hit a sharp comebacker off the pitcher's glove for an infield hit to open the inning, and after Shelley Duncan was retired on a fly out, Brantley hit a bouncer up the middle that got through for a hit, which moved Santana to third.
LaPorta followed with one of the few hard-hit balls of the night for Cleveland, a liner to center that scored the tying run and ended Ross' night. But the bullpen at least made sure he didn't have to take a loss after such a terrific performance. Craig Breslow retired Hannahan on a ground out, and with runners at second and third, Wuertz walked pinch hitter Travis Hafner to load the bases but struck out Sizemore to herve leger
end the rally and keep the score 1-1.
Ross, who has given up just one earned run over his past 13?1/3 innings as the replacement starter for injured Dallas Braden, did not walk a batter in his 6?1/3-inning stint and struck out three in a career-high 97-pitch outing.
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