[RebelYell]

Indians Eke Out
Win over Orioles
BALTIMORE – Victor Martinez is trying to remove the “light-hitting” tag from his name.
The only Cleveland player in the lineup with a batting average under .250, Martinez gave C.C. Sabathia and the Indians a big lift in the opening game of a three-game set with a grand slam to account for all the runs in a 4-0 victory.

The two teams then split the next two games, including an 11-inning thriller on Wednesday, won by the Indians on Juan Gonzalez’s home run.

Sidney Ponson cuffed the Tribe in the middle game, a 6-2 victory by the Orioles.

“It’s good to kind of get the monkey off our back,” Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth said. “Baltimore was the first team to beat us in a series at our place and it was nice to kind of even things up a little bit this time around.”

Cleveland demonstrated strength in its starting pitching as Sabathia combined with the bullpen for a shutout in Monday’s opener. Martinez supplied all the runs the Indians would need with his clout, but the Indians paid for the victory in a four-run loss the following day.

In the finale, left-hander Jeremy Sowers was effective over 7 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs and five hits. The Indians could not get Sowers the win, though, and had to turn things over to the tag-team combination of Bob Wickman and Chad Zerbe.

Gonzalez’s homer in the 11th gave the Tribe a 3-2 triumph.

“I just wish we could get some of the runs we were getting for Jeremy (Sowers) in his first couple of outings,” Southworth said. “He’s pitched better and better every time out and he’s not getting the wins he deserves for it.

“At the same time, I think we’ve got to consider ourselves kind of lucky to win two out of three from a team when we scored just nine runs in 29 innings against them,” Southworth said. “We scored 15 in three games at home against them and only won once.
Baseball is a funny game sometimes.”