Published September 06, 2008 03:54 am - KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Asdrubal Cabrera lined a single up the middle. Grady Sizemore pulled one through the right side. Jamey Carroll nearly hit pitcher Brandon Duckworth in the forehead with another, driving in a run.
An inning to remember
Fab fifth leads Indians past Royals; Reyes leaves early with elbow stiffness
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Asdrubal Cabrera lined a single up the middle. Grady Sizemore pulled one through the right side. Jamey Carroll nearly hit pitcher Brandon Duckworth in the forehead with another, driving in a run.
By the time the Indians were done, they had an inning straight out of a Little League game: seven consecutive hits, five successive RBI singles, six runs.
Cleveland’s big inning led to a 9-3 win over the Kansas City Royals Friday night in Victor Martinez’s return to catching, extending the Indians’ road winning streak to 10 games.
“I’ve been part of some big rallies, but I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like that,” Carroll said.
The Indians scored two runs in the second inning off Brandon Duckworth (2-1) and probably would have had more if Royals second baseman Alberto Callaspo hadn’t made a nifty flip with his glove to start a double play.
Then Cleveland poured it on in the fifth.
Carroll got the scoring started with his headhunting single, then David Dellucci, Jhonny Peralta, Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo each hit RBI singles. Another run came in on Ryan Garko’s double play ball, making it 8-0. Yasuhiko Yabuta, Kansas City’s third pitcher in the inning, finally ended the inning by getting Franklin Gutierrez to ground out
The Indians finished with 12 hits, beating up on a tired Royals team that used a team-record nine different pitchers in a doubleheader the day before.
“We’ve got to be able to stop the bleeding a lot sooner than we did,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.
Cleveland matched the fourth-longest road winning streak in franchise history and has won five straight and 13 of 18 overall. Though the Indians still have a long way to go, trailing Chicago by 10 1/2 games in the AL Central, they weren’t about to take any chances with starter Anthony Reyes.
The right-hander had a hard time warming up and couldn’t get loose during the game. He still pitched well, allowing a hit and a walk in three innings, but didn’t come out for the fourth to protect his sore elbow.
Reyes was replaced by Edward Mujica (2-1), who gave up four hits in two innings.
“It was just a little stiff,” Reyes said. “I thought it would loosen up, it just never did. I’m just being careful and decided to give it a break today.”
The news on Martinez’s elbow was much better.
The two-time All-Star catcher had elbow surgery on June 13 and had struggled at the plate after being activated from the disabled list on Aug. 31, going 3-for-15 in five games. Martinez got a lift from hitting his first homer in nearly a year Wednesday against the White Sox and Indians manager Eric Wedge decided to give him a shot behind the plate against Kansas City.