|
Tribe beats error prone Angels
yahoo sports
CLEVELAND- Derek Lowe pitched three-hit ball into the eighth inning and
the Cleveland Indians scored three runs on Angels errors to beat Los
Angeles 4-0 Sunday.
Lowe (4-1) retired 12 batters on ground balls, including Albert Pujols
three times. Pujols also struck out against reliever Chris Perez,
extending his career-long homerless streak to 117 at-bats.
Ervin Santana (0-5), in his first start against Cleveland since
throwing a no-hitter at Progressive Field last July 27, allowed two
unearned runs over seven innings. The runs scored when nine-time Gold
Glove outfielder Torii Hunter lost a routine two-out fly ball in the
sun for an error in the fifth.
Los Angeles has totaled only 11 runs while losing six of seven. They
fell farther into last place in the AL West by being shut out for the
fourth time overall. Cleveland leads the AL Central.
Pujols is homerless in 22 games since signing his $240 million contract
with the Angels. In 2006, he set an April record with 14 homers for St.
Louis. The three-time NL MVP hit five homers during the 2011 postseason
for the Cardinals, but has not connected in the regular season since
Sept. 22.
Lowe allowed only a pair of singles by Kendrys Morales over the first 7
2-3 innings before running into trouble.
He left after issuing his second walk of the game, to Maicer Izturis,
who went to third on a long single to right-center by Chris Iannetta.
Vinnie Pestano came on and walked rookie Mike Trout to load the bases
before striking out Howie Kendrick
The Indians went ahead in the fifth, when they put two runners on in an
inning for the third time against Santana. With one out, Aaron
Cunningham reached on an infield hit and Michael Brantley walked.
Santana struck out Jason Kipnis and appeared about to get out of
another jam when Asdrubal Cabrera flied to right. Hunter drifted under
the ball, then shaded his eyes and ducked as it fell next to him.
The Indians quickly ruined whatever no-hit thoughts Santana may have
had when Brantley and Kipnis led off the first inning with singles.
Santana came right back to get Cabrera to bounce a ball right back to
him and the right-hander turned a double play. He then got Travis
Hafner to fly out.
Santana also escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth when Shelley
Duncan popped out.
The right-hander is 0-7 overall since winning at Seattle on Sept. 1.
His only win over Cleveland in 12 career starts against the Indians was
his no-hitter. He’s 1-7 overall against Cleveland.
The Indians scored twice in the eighth off Kevin Jepsen, whose throwing
error on a sacrifice bunt by Jack Hannahan made it 3-0. Duncan added a
sacrifice fly.
Cleveland’s homerless streak reached 11 games, their longest drought
since a 14-game streak, April 10-22, 1983.
|
|
|
|
