STEVE GOLDMAN
Star Beacon
May 10, 2008 02:34 am
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CLEVELAND — Perhaps a sleeping giant finally awoke. For C.C. Sabathia, at least as far as Friday night was concerned, it wasn’t a moment too soon.
The Cleveland offense, after being shut down for six innings, evoking thoughts of “Here we go again” from the local fans, erupted for six runs in the seventh. That propelled the team to a 6-1 win against Toronto, making for a successful opening to a seven-game home stand.
The Indians (17-18), who had failed to score more than three runs in 18 of their first 34 games including eight of 10 entering Friday, were shut down on three hits over the initial six frames by former Cy Young award winner Roy “Doc” Halladay (3-5, 3.29 ERA), and trailed 1-0 entering the bottom of the seventh.
However, Travis Hafner led off with a bloop single to left-center and Ryan Garko laced a hit to left. Asdrubal Cabrera came to bat with the intention of bunting, but took four straight balls to load the bases.
The opportunistic Casey Blake, who is hitting just .221 but leads the club with 24 RBI, took a strike before belting the next pitch off the left-center field wall for a two-run double.
Blake is now on pace for 111 RBI.
“It seems like that’s the way my hits are coming these days, and I’m not complaining,” Blake said. “Halladay is about as good as there is. I think maybe he was getting a little tired.”
“Blake has done a good job for us in (RBI) situations,” manager Eric Wedge said.
Lefty Jesse Carlson came on to retire Grady Sizemore on a popout and then walked Franklin Gutierrez intentionally, filling the bags again.
When the right-handed Ben Francisco was announced as a pinch-hitter for David Dellucci, righty Jeremy Accardo was summoned to replace Carlson. However, Francisco foiled the strategy by nailing an 0-1 pitch off the left-field wall for another two-run double.
“Bennie got on top of a high pitch, and was able to drive one and help us separate,” Wedge said.
A wild pitch brought home the fifth run, and after an intentional walk to Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta hit a sacrifice fly to complete the rally.
“It was nice to see us put together a big inning like that against a good pitcher like Halladay,” Wedge said.
“It was awesome,” Sabathia said of the rally. “I definitely thought Casey’s ball was gone.”
Sabathia (2-5 6.55), meanwhile, was brilliant for the third time in his last four outings after faring horrendously in his first four starts. He went seven innings, giving up just the one run on six hits, two walks and a hit batter while striking out nine. The only run he surrendered came in the fifth inning when Rod Barajas led off with a double and scored on a one-out single by Marco Scutaro.
Sabathia, who induced a double-play grounder off the bat of Kevin Mench to help get out of a two-on, none-out jam in the fourth, also retired the final two men he faced with two on in the seventh. He has a 1.98 earned run average in his last four starts, although he is just 2-2 in that span, having suffered a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees and Chien-Meng Wang on Apr. 27.
“Obviously, it was C.C. who put us in the position to win the ballgame,” Wedge said. “He was very good tonight.
“C.C.’s been throwing the ball well in his last (4) starts. He’s pitched with confidence. He’s throwing the ball the way he wants to throw the ball.”
“I felt if I could keep throwing the ball (the way I was), we could break out of it,” Sabathia said. “And we did.”
Jensen Lewis and Masa Kobayashi worked one inning of scoreless relief apiece for Cleveland.
Hafner began the fifth with a double to left, but the next three batters went down meekly as he watched from second base.
Sizemore led off the following frame with a hit up the middle, It looked like the Indians might get something going when Gutierrez hit a bloop to center, but Vernon Wells made a diving catch, although he jammed his left wrist and suffered tightness in his right hamstring on the play, and had to leave the contest.
Ryan Tallet finished up for the Blue Jays (17-20).
Halladay set a personal season-high with nine strikeouts, although the six-inning outing was his shortest of the campaign.
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
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