Indians Vs. Yankees Final: Carlos Carrasco Ends Another Losing Streak With Help From Bullpen, 1-0

When Carlos Carrasco loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning tonight in New York against the Yankees with nobody out, most Indians’ fans probably had a very familiar and sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

But then something marvelous happened, as Carrasco got Alex Rodgriguez to fly out, followed with a strikeout and a grounder to escape, and then continued tightrope-walking his way through seven shutout innings, as the Tribe salvaged the last game of this 4-game set and assured that they would go into Detroit at least percentage points ahead of the Tigers at the beginning of their three-game set, beginning Tuesday night.

The second straight 1-0 win with Carrasco on the mound was wrapped up by the bullpen. Tony Sipp pitched two-thirds of an inning in the eighth before turning it over to Vinnie Pestano, who walked Rodriguez but then got the third out by retiring Robinson Cano.

And in the bottom of the ninth, Chris Perez came on and struck out the side to pick up his 16th save of the season and locking up this oh-so-important win.

The hard-luck loser was A.J. Burnett (6-5, 4.09 ERA), who went 7.2 innings and gave up only the one run on five hits.

Carrasco improved to 6-3 and lowered his ERA to 4.09. In 15.1 frames in his last two starts, Carrasco has allowed only eight hits and no runs, while walking four and fanning 13.

The only run scored in the top of the fourth when Michael Brantley led off with a triple and came in to score when Asdrubal Cabrera went the other way and poked a single through the left side.

The Tribe went only 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base, while the Yankees were 0-for-7 with RISP and stranded eight.

Now Cleveland heads for Detroit. The Tigers, at the time of writing, are in extra innings, deadlocked at 1-1 with the Tampa Bay Rays.

After Mavs Give Cleveland A Boost, Indians Try To Follow Suit On Monday In The Bronx

(Sports Network) - The Derek Jeter watch is officially on. Tonight, the shortstop tries to draw closer to his 3,000th hit when the New York Yankees go for a sweep in the finale of their four-game series with the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium.

Jeter had two of the Yankees' 18 hits on Sunday in a 9-1 win. Curtis Granderson added four hits, Brett Gardner had three and Alex Rodriguez finished 3-for-5 with three RBI for the Yankees, who have won the first three games of this series by a combined score of 24-8.

The outburst was more than enough for Freddy Garcia (5-5), who gave up one run on seven hits and two walks, striking out six batters for his third win in four starts.

"He got out of some situations where they had runners in scoring position," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "I thought that was important. It allowed us to build our lead."

Jeter, though, moved within seven hits of becoming the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits. After tonight's game, the Yankees play three more home games with the Texas Rangers before hitting the road for six interleague games in Chicago and Cincinnati.

"It's impossible for it not to be in your head, because I'm asked that question all the time," Jeter said of the attention on the milestone. "All I can control is having good at-bats and trying to hit the ball hard and hopefully find some holes."

Josh Tomlin (7-4) was knocked around for six runs on 12 hits in five innings to absorb the loss as the Indians fell to 1-9 in their last 10 games. The Indians remain tied atop the American League Central standings with the Detroit Tigers.

"That's why you play the game. You play to play against guys like [the Yankees] to test your stuff," remarked Tomlin. "I didn't change my approach at all. I still tried to go after them."

The Indians offensive struggles continued on Sunday, as they failed to score more than two runs for the 12th time in their last 18 games. They are also a miserable 6-for-68 with runners in scoring position in their last 10.

"We're going to have to just continue to go out there and fight, and maybe tinker a little bit more with that lineup," said Cleveland manager Manny Acta. "We'll do whatever we can to try to see if we can come up with something different."

Getting the call for the Yankees tonight will be right-hander A.J. Burnett, who is 6-4 with a 4.37 ERA. Burnett was pounded by the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday for eight runs (seven earned) and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Burnett is 3-4 lifetime against the Indians with a 4.97 ERA in eight games.

Cleveland, meanwhile, will counter with righty Carlos Carrasco, who is 5-3 with a 4.52 ERA. Carrasco won for the fourth time in his last five starts with a brilliant effort on Tuesday against Minnesota, as he scattered three hits over 8 1/3 scoreless innings.

"The key is I need to be focused," Carrasco said afterward. "Sometimes I try to be too perfect. Sometimes I just want to just strikeout somebody and I throw too many pitches. [Tuesday] was good."

Carrasco has never faced the Yankees. who have won eight of the last nine meetings with the Indians.

Indians Vs. Yankees Final: Yankees Rock Cleveland 9-1; Tribe's Latest Losing Streak Reaches 4

The Indians are very fortunate that the Seattle Mariners took two-of-four in Detroit this weekend. That version of a gift from Eric Wedge has kept the Tribe in first place, even as Cleveland lost its 9th out of 10 games and the New York Yankees prevailed 9-1.

Josh Tomlin lost his second straight decision and lasted less than six innings. Tomlin (7-4, 4.14 ERA) went five frames, surrendering six runs on 12 hits, although in fairness the defense was a little shaky and a couple of the hits could perhaps have been ruled errors. A generous official scorer did not help Tomlin’s line.

Any hope the Indians had was dashed in the bottom of the eighth, after Frank Herrmann and Tony Sipp each tossed a scoreless inning, when Chad Durbin was touched for four hits and three runs to turn a 6-1 deficit into the final 9-1.

Freddy Garcia (5-5, 3,60) was the winner, going 6.2 innings and allowing a run on seven hits with two walks and six K’s.

Three Yankees’ relievers held the Tribe at bay for the final 2.1 innings as the Yankees remained two games behind the Boston Red Sox.

The only Tribe run was plated in the seventh, but only after New York erupted for five in the sixth. In that Cleveland seventh, Austin Kearns led off with a double and moved to third on a ground-out from Jack Hannahan. Michael Brantley picked up the RBI on another ground ball.

Even with that the Indians managed to frustrate in the same inning when the next three hitter all reached base on an Asdrubal Cabrera single, a Grady Sizemore walk, and when Carlos Santana reached on an error. But with a chance to draw closer — or perhaps even to within a run — Shin-Soo Choo ended the threat when he lined out to short.

Asdrubal Cabrera collected three of Cleveland’s eight hits. but the Tribe left 12 men on base as the prolonged offensive slump continued.

One bright spot was the five stolen bases for The Good Guys today — two each from Asdrubal Cabrera and Choo and one from Orlando Cabrera.

All that is left now in this series is to try and salvage a win tomorrow night behind Carlos Carrasco.

And then it is on to Detroit for a battle for first place — if indeed any team that has lost 14 of 18 can be said to be battling anything…except themselves.

Josh Tomlin Has The Job Of Trying To Keep Indians Atop AL Central On Sunday

The Indians have had sole possession of first place in the American League Central since April 17, and have had at least a share of the lead since April 7.

That could all change on Sunday afternoon in New York.

When the Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners in Detroit last night, the Tigers climbed into a virtual tie for first place with the Tribe. Cleveland’s lead is now only percentage points, after the Indians had led by seven games as recently as May 23 — the day that Cleveland moved to 30-15 with a win over the Boston Red Sox.

Since then the Indians have won four and lost 13. Today Josh Tomlin will have the task of trying to keep the Tribe on top, no matter what Detroit does.

And of course, it would be necessary for Cleveland to put at least a run on the board — something they were unable to do yesterday. Something they have been unable to do in five of their last 15 games.

Tomlin (7-3, 3.71 ERA) has been hit hard in his last three starts. In that span he has given up 16 earned runs in only 18 innings, and has seen his ERA rise from 2.41 to its current number in that span. One of those starts was a cakewalk win in Toronto where Tomlin could be excused for throwing a lot of get-em-out pitches, but in his last start, against the Twins on Monday, pitching with a big lead was not a luxury, and still Tomlin allowed six runs in six innings to a last-place team.

If there is reason to be hopeful, it is that Tomlin has faced the Yankees just once in his career, going seven frames and allowing just one run, defeating the Bombers on three hits with no walks.

A similar effort will be incumbent today, with the Tribe’s current offensive slump.

New York will send Freddy Garcia to the hill. Garcia (4-5, 3.86 ERA) has a long history against the Tribe. In 20 career appearances, including 19 starts, Garcia is dead-even against Cleveland, with a 6-6 record and a 4.06 ERA in 124 innings.

Garcia’s last appearance was as a bad one. Against Boston on Monday, Garcia was knocked out in the second inning, giving up four hits, three walks and four runs in just 1.2 innings in a 6-4 Yankees loss.

After this afternoon’s contest, this series will conclude on Monday night with Carlos Carrasco (5-3) opposing A.J. Burnett (6-4).

Indians Vs. Yankees Final: Tribe Succumbs To 3 Homers To Lose 13th In 17 Games, 4-0

The Indians have now gone scoreless in Mitch Talbot’s last two starts. After being blanked by Texas last week, the Tribe drew another goose-egg this afternoon, this time against ex-Indians Bartolo Colon and the New York bullpen, as the Yankees won their second straight at the beginning of this four-game series, 4-0.

Talbot (2-3, 4.01 ERA) once again pitched well enough to win, giving up only two solo homers — one to Alex Rodriguez and another to Curtis Granderson — in his 5.2 innings, but when he seemed to slip and hit A-Rod in the leg in the sixth, he was immediately tossed from the game in an obvious sop to the Yankees, whose feelings were hurt so badly last night when Fausto Carmona hit Mark Teixeira and was not ejected.

The Tribe was shut down into the seventh inning by Colon (5-3, 3.10 ERA), who gave up only two hits and a walk and fanned six before leaving with a hamstring injury suffered when he raced to the bag at first to take Teixeira’s throw to retire Shin-Soo Choo.

A chance for the Indians to come back? One could have hoped so, but David Robertson and Boone Logan were able to keep Cleveland off the board for the final 2.1 frames.

The Tribe’s futility at the plate this afternoon was illustrated in the eighth.

Jack Hannahan and Lou Marson — the Indians’ eight and nine hitters — led off with singles, which meant that the top of the order was coming to the plate with each batter representing the tying run.

Result?

Michael Brantley, Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore all struck out. Rally over, and basically, game over.

Rodriguez homered with two outs in the fourth for the first run of the game, and Granderson hit his shot in the sixth, two batters before Talbot’s ejection for plunking Rodriguez.

Rafael Perez came on to finish the sixth. In the seventh the Yankees increased their lead to 3-0. Nick Swisher led off with a single and Jorge Posada followed with a base-hit to right. When Posada’s hit was misplayed by Choo, Swisher scored.

New York’s final run came in the eighth when Vinnie Pestano gave up a long-ball to Teixeira.

Hannahan had two of the Indians’ five hits, including a ground-rule double. The Tribe’s Achilles’ Heel of late — batting with runners in scoring position — was again evident when Cleveland went 0-for-4 with RISP.

So now we move on to Sunday, where the Tribe and Yanks will go at it again at 1:05 with Josh Tomlin going for the Indians against Freddy Garcia.

Mitch Talbot Tries To Get Indians Even In Series With Yankees Saturday Vs. Colon

The Indians will see an old friend on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx as they face Bartolo Colon and the Yankees in the second game of their four-game series.

Colon, who toiled for the Tribe from 1997 to 2002 (ah, those were mostly good years, weren’t they?) is in his first year with New York and is enjoying a decent season so far. Colon (4-3, 3.39 ERA) has won his last two starts, and had a complete game shutout of the Oakland A’s on May 30 for what has been, up to this point, his best game for the Bronx Bombers.

This will be the ninth time that Colon has faced his former mates. In eight previous appearances — all as a starter — Colon is 4-3 with a 4.00 ERA against Cleveland in 54 innings.

The Indians will send Mitch Talbot to the hill today. Talbot (2-2, 4.18 ERA) was the victim of no support in his last start, against Texas on Sunday. In that one Talbot worked six innings and gave up just two runs in a quality start, but took the loss as the Rangers blanked the Tribe 2-0.

Talbot has been good cumulatively in his last two starts, going 12.2 innings and allowing just three runs, although giving up 14 hits and six walks to go with seven strikeouts.

Talbot has faced the Yankees twice in his career, both times as a starter, and is 0-1 with a 4.32 ERA vs. New York. However, those numbers were accrued on only 8.1 innings worked.

The Indians have somehow remained atop the AL Central, although the lead is only one game over the Tigers, who were defeated by the Mariners in Detroit last night. Chicago lingers 5.5 games back, but the White Sox were stunned last night when Oakland rallied in the ninth inning to win in a game which ended the Athletics’ 10-game losing streak.

This series will continue with another 1:05 game on Sunday afternoon before concluding on Monday night with a 7:05 contest.

Indians Vs. Yankees Final: Shouting And Hitting And Another Loss; Yanks Win 11-7

Bronx, NY (Sports Network) – Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson each homered and Mark Teixeira added a three-run double for the Yankees in an 11-7 victory over the Indians that turned a bit contentious in the second inning.

Teixeira got involved in a shouting match with Indians starter Fausto Carmona after he was hit by a pitch in the second, leading to both teams leaving their benches to join the scuffle. While there was no serious threat of an ensuing brawl, the Yankees beat up the Indians on the scoreboard.

Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada each had three hits and an RBI to help the Yankees put their three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox behind them.

Ivan Nova (5-4) lasted seven innings and gave up two runs on four hits and three walks to earn the win.

Carmona (3-8) was roughed up for six runs on eight hits and three walks in just four frames en route to dropping his fifth straight start.

Carlos Santana hit a solo homer and drove in two for Cleveland, which was coming off an unsuccessful 1-6 homestand.

Carmona walked the bases loaded in the first inning, and all three runners scored. Cano knocked in Derek Jeter with a single, Teixeira scored on Nick Swisher’s sacrifice fly and Posada brought in Rodriguez with a base hit.

"Obviously walking to bases loaded in the first inning did him in," stated Indians manager Manny Acta, who also said he had never seen Carmona that wild.

Granderson belted one high into the second deck down the right-field line in the second, and Carmona, clearly frustrated, sent his next pitch between Teixeira’s numbers on the back of his jersey, causing an uneventful clearing of the benches.

"If you want to send a message, if you’re upset the way you’re pitching and upset you gave up a home run, just throw the ball below the waist. I’ve been hit plenty of times in my career, but any time it’s a purpose pitch up near my head, near my neck, I don’t like that," Teixeira explained.

New York continued its onslaught the next inning, as Brett Gardner doubled off the wall in right-center to plate Cano. In the fourth, Rodriguez powered one into the bleachers in left-center for a 6-0 cushion.

Cleveland had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth and managed only one run on Michael Brantley’s fielder’s choice grounder to first.

Santana homered in the sixth, then gave the run back in the bottom half when he tried to nab Granderson trying to steal third and threw the ball away, allowing Granderson to score easily.

The Yankees pushed across four against Chad Durbin in the seventh, as Teixeira knocked in three on a bases-loaded double to the right-field gap before scoring on Rodriguez’s two-bagger to center.

Kevin Whelan, called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before the game, walked four Indians in the eighth to force in a run, and Cleveland put together a late rally in the ninth.

Santana hit an RBI single and Shin-Soo Choo worked a walk off Lance Pendleton to bring in a run and force Mariano Rivera out of the bullpen in a non-save situation.

LaPorta greeted the closer with a two-run single, but Rivera retired the next two hitters to get the four-game series started on a winning note for the hosts.

Jeter doubled in the seventh to pull within nine hits shy of 3,000 for his career…Rodriguez’s homer was his 12th of the season and 625th for his career…Before the game, the Yankees learned reliever Joba Chamberlain will need to undergo Tommy John surgery, effectively ending his season and likely part of next year’s as well…The Yankees optioned outfielder Chris Dickerson to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make room for Whelan…Indians outfielder Travis Buck may have whiplash from a car accident involving a taxicab earlier Friday.

Two Struggling Teams Meet In New York Friday Night When Indians Meet Yankees To Begin 4-Game Series

(Sports Network) - The New York Yankees hope to put their recent home woes behind them this evening when they open a four-game set with the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees kicked off their season-high tying 10-game homestand by losing three straight games to the Boston Red Sox, including Thursday's 8-3 setback in the Bronx.

CC Sabathia (7-4) was charged with six runs on eight hits and two walks in 6 2/3 frames for the Yankees, who had won six of seven overall entering the series, but have now dropped 10 of their last 14 at home.

"It's not how you wanted it to end tonight, it did and you've got to move on," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Derek Jeter singled and scored a run in the loss and is now just 10 hits away from 3,000.

The loss capped a disappointing day for New York, as it learned hours before the start of the game that reliever Joba Chamberlain would likely be lost for the season with a complete tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right elbow.

"I have no pain," Chamberlain said. "You could ask me to do anything. Just as far as being here, sitting here, [there's nothing]. A lot of guys who have had it feel a pop or certain thing -- it's hard to open doors, it's hard to do certain things. Nothing bothers me. That's what is really surprising for me.

"You're going to have to cut my arm off to stop me from pitching. But on the other hand, you have to realize this is your career. At 25, I'm still fairly young."

Hoping to reverse the Yankees' recent fortunes tonight will be young right- hander Ivan Nova, who is 4-4 with a 4.50 ERA. Nova was charged with a loss last Friday in Anaheim, but pitched well, allowing just two earned runs in six innings.

"It's really encouraging," Girardi said following that outing. "We saw him use his changeup. We saw him use his sinker. We saw him throw more strikes tonight. He walked two guys in six innings. That's good."

This will be his first-ever appearance against the Indians, who enter this series after losing two of three to Minnesota and have dropped 11 of 15 overall to see their lead atop the AL Central dwindled to just one game over the Detroit Tigers.

"Most of these guys that are here went through even tougher times last year," Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. "I don't think their confidence has wavered at all. It's human nature. One guy wants to win the whole game by himself and does way too much in certain at-bats, and the next guy does the same thing. You just have to let the game come to you and just take what the pitcher gives you, and go from there."

Getting the call tonight for the Tribe will be right-hander Fausto Carmona, who has lost four straight starts. Carmona's latest setback came on Saturday against the Texas Rangers, as he surrendered four runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Carmona is just 1-4 lifetime versus the Yankees with a 6.53 ERA in 10 games, seven of which have been starts.

The Yankees won six of their eight meetings with the Indians last year and have won 10 of the last 13 matchups in the series.