CLEVELAND — Pitching and defense were the words to live by at Progressive Field on Monday, as the Indians and Toronto split a pair of 3-0 decisions in a traditional doubleheader.

Fausto Carmona hurled a complete-game, five-hit shutout for the Tribe in the opener. Then in a contest that featured a very rare unassisted triple play by Cleveland’s Asdrubal Cabrera, the Blue Jays (18-22) lasted through nine innings of shutout ball by the seemingly invincible Cliff Lee, then scored all their runs in the 10th inning to escape town with one win in the four-game series.

The Tribe (19-19), which had seemed to make progress on offense in the first two games of the series after a stretch in which it struggled offensively, managed just three hits against Shaun Marcum and two relievers in the nightcap, and eight in the two games combined.

“Our approach tonight was about as poor, if not the poorest, I’ve seen all year,” manager Eric Wedge said. “No excuses for it — no excuses.

“We gave away at-bats all night long. Not to take anything from (Marcum) because he’s a hell of a pitcher. But we gave away at-bats.”

Cabrera’s big moment came in the fifth inning, after Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro had singled against Cliff Lee with no outs.

With a 1-0 count on Lyle Overbay, the runners took off from first and second base on a hit-and-run. Overbay hit a soft liner up the middle, and Cabrera, playing second base, slid to his right to make a backhanded catch. Cabrera stepped on second to retire Mench and tagged Scutaro to complete the feat, which has happened only 14 times in baseball history.

“I saw that they both took off, and there was a line drive,” Cabrera said through coach Luis Rivera, who acted as interpreter. “I knew I had a chance to get a triple play.”

“That was pretty neat,” Lee said. “That was something you don’t get to see very often.”

However, Wedge seemed not to care about the fact that one of the things that people love so much about baseball is the historical moments it sometimes provides.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” he said. “We didn’t win the game.”

It had already been quite a day for Cabrera. In the opener, he had turned in a fielding gem at shortstop and belted his first homer of the season — a two-run shot— to back Carmona.

Later, Marcum effectively neutralized Lee’s performance by pitching eight innings of two-hit baseball. The right-hander retired the final 15 batters he faced after Victor Martinez opened the fourth with a double.

With neither side able to break through against the opposing starter, it was left to the relievers to settle the issue. It was Cleveland’s Rafael Betancourt who finally cracked, ending a streak of 31 innings in which Tribe pitchers had blanked Toronto over the weekend.

The streak was the longest of consecutive zeroes posted by an Indians staff since the 1972 season.