GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: AL: MINNESOTA (67-65) at CLEVELAND (74-57)

Indians take advantage of rocky first inning by Santana

<h3>CLEVELAND 4, MINNESOTA 3</h3>By Todd Krepop
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer




CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Even Johan Santana was not enough tobrighten the Minnesota Twins dim playoff hopes.


C.C. Sabathia pitched six effective innings as the ClevelandIndians hung on to defeat the Twins, 4-3, on Wednesday night.

With their playoff lives hanging by a thread, the Twins turnedto their ace in hopes of salvaging the final game of the threegame series. But the Indians offense jumped on Santana (14-10)early, scoring four runs in the first to send the Twins ace tohis fourth loss in five starts against Cleveland this season.

"It's not just me," Santana said. "It's the whole team. I'vealways said it takes the whole team to win."


It was the third time this season the Twins have been swept byCleveland, which won its fifth straight contest. Minnesota(67-66) is now 8 1/2 games behind the Indians (75-57), theirlargest deficit since July 27.


"There's a month to play," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said."We have to go out and keep playing until someone tells us we'redone. Obviously, we're in a deep hole. We're playing theleaders and we got swept. It was a disappointing series forus."


"It feels good to sweep (Minnesota) and let them know we are forreal," Sabathia said.


Indians manager Eric Wedge though cautioned it was too early tothink the Twins are out of it.


"We still have a long way to go," he said. "With what Minnesotahas done the past five years it demands your respect and wefully understand that."


Sabathia (15-7) allowed two runs on seven hits and struck outtwo. The lefthander struggled with his command as he walked twoand hit two hit before turning over a 4-2 lead to the bullpen.

Rookie Jensen Lewis pitched a perfect seventh, but RafaelBetancourt allowed a run in the eighth as the Twins closed thegap to 4-3. But Joe Borowski pitched around a leadoff single inthe ninth to pick up his AL-leading 39th save in 44 chances.

Cleveland extended its lead to 4 1/2 games, which matches itslargest lead of the season, over second place Detroit in the ALCentral. The Indians have won 10 of their last 13 games to takecontrol of the division.


"We definitely feel we have something to prove," Sabathia said."People are still doubting us and think we are going to falloff, but I think we are here to stay.


"This is the best time to get hot and play well. Hopefully wecan put it together and run away with this thing."

Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera's two-run homer highlighted Cleveland'sfour-run first. The Indians sent nine men to the plate asSantana had to throw 41 pitches to get through the frame. VictorMartinez also homered during the inning and Kenny Lofton addeda two-out RBI single.


"I was trying to locate my fastball, but I wasn't able to catchup with my arm," Santana said. "A couple of balls left the park.That was the difference."


The long ball has hurt Santana this season as opposing battershave hit a league-leading 29 home runs off of him this season.

"That's the only way to beat him sometimes," Wedge said. "You'renot going to string three or four hits together."


Santana held the Indians scoreless the rest of his outing, butdidn't get enough run support to preserve his three-game winningstreak. The two-time Cy Young winner allowed a career-high 10hits for the fourth time in his career and struck out only two.

"It was a matter of throwing the right pitches," Santana said."I stayed with it. We came back and scored some runs, but itwasn't enough."


Meanwhile Sabathia didn't have his best stuff as well, but thefour runs of support were enough for the All-Star to pick upjust his third win since the All-Star break.


"(The runs) almost relaxed me too much," Sabathia said. "Istarted thinking about stuff I shouldn't have. I thought maybeI could finish this game or maybe this and that, and got out ofmy game. I kind of got out of my game and got behind some guysand some tough innings."


Sabathia was on pace to win 20 games, but his offense andbullpen have offered him little help in the second half. Thelefthander had a 2.13 ERA in his previous seven starts, butCleveland was only 1-6 during that stretch.


Jason Tyner extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12games and rookie Alexi Casilla had three hits for the Twins, whohave lost seven of 11 games against Cleveland this season.

 

Indians take advantage of rocky first inning by Santana

<h3>CLEVELAND 4, MINNESOTA 3</h3>By Todd Krepop
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Even Johan Santana was not enough tobrighten the Minnesota Twins dim playoff hopes.


C.C. Sabathia pitched six effective innings as the ClevelandIndians hung on to defeat the Twins, 4-3, on Wednesday night.

With their playoff lives hanging by a thread, the Twins turnedto their ace in hopes of salvaging the final game of the threegame series. But the Indians offense jumped on Santana (14-10)early, scoring four runs in the first to send the Twins ace tohis fourth loss in five starts against Cleveland this season.

"It's not just me," Santana said. "It's the whole team. I'vealways said it takes the whole team to win."


It was the third time this season the Twins have been swept byCleveland, which won its fifth straight contest. Minnesota(67-66) is now 8 1/2 games behind the Indians (75-57), theirlargest deficit since July 27.


"There's a month to play," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said."We have to go out and keep playing until someone tells us we'redone. Obviously, we're in a deep hole. We're playing theleaders and we got swept. It was a disappointing series forus."


"It feels good to sweep (Minnesota) and let them know we are forreal," Sabathia said.


Indians manager Eric Wedge though cautioned it was too early tothink the Twins are out of it.


"We still have a long way to go," he said. "With what Minnesotahas done the past five years it demands your respect and wefully understand that."


Sabathia (15-7) allowed two runs on seven hits and struck outtwo. The lefthander struggled with his command as he walked twoand hit two hit before turning over a 4-2 lead to the bullpen.

Rookie Jensen Lewis pitched a perfect seventh, but RafaelBetancourt allowed a run in the eighth as the Twins closed thegap to 4-3. But Joe Borowski pitched around a leadoff single inthe ninth to pick up his AL-leading 39th save in 44 chances.

Cleveland extended its lead to 4 1/2 games, which matches itslargest lead of the season, over second place Detroit in the ALCentral. The Indians have won 10 of their last 13 games to takecontrol of the division.


"We definitely feel we have something to prove," Sabathia said."People are still doubting us and think we are going to falloff, but I think we are here to stay.


"This is the best time to get hot and play well. Hopefully wecan put it together and run away with this thing."

Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera's two-run homer highlighted Cleveland'sfour-run first. The Indians sent nine men to the plate asSantana had to throw 41 pitches to get through the frame. VictorMartinez also homered during the inning and Kenny Lofton addeda two-out RBI single.


"I was trying to locate my fastball, but I wasn't able to catchup with my arm," Santana said. "A couple of balls left the park.That was the difference."


The long ball has hurt Santana this season as opposing battershave hit a league-leading 29 home runs off of him this season.

"That's the only way to beat him sometimes," Wedge said. "You'renot going to string three or four hits together."


Santana held the Indians scoreless the rest of his outing, butdidn't get enough run support to preserve his three-game winningstreak. The two-time Cy Young winner allowed a career-high 10hits for the fourth time in his career and struck out only two.

"It was a matter of throwing the right pitches," Santana said."I stayed with it. We came back and scored some runs, but itwasn't enough."


Meanwhile Sabathia didn't have his best stuff as well, but thefour runs of support were enough for the All-Star to pick upjust his third win since the All-Star break.


"(The runs) almost relaxed me too much," Sabathia said. "Istarted thinking about stuff I shouldn't have. I thought maybeI could finish this game or maybe this and that, and got out ofmy game. I kind of got out of my game and got behind some guysand some tough innings."


Sabathia was on pace to win 20 games, but his offense andbullpen have offered him little help in the second half. Thelefthander had a 2.13 ERA in his previous seven starts, butCleveland was only 1-6 during that stretch.


Jason Tyner extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12games and rookie Alexi Casilla had three hits for the Twins, whohave lost seven of 11 games against Cleveland this season.