The Cleveland Indians started to rally back from a 10-2 deficit on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays, but their comeback fell short as they were effectively held off in the ninth inning, falling 11-9 in the end. Cleveland put together a five-run eighth inning, as Michael Brantley and Casey Kotchman both his two-run homeruns off of Jesse Chavez, who came in at the top of the inning. He gave way to Drew Carpenter, who was shutdown until Casey Janssen came in to try and get the last out, but gave up a run as well when Travis Hafner singled, scoring Asdrubal Cabrera.
They were shut down from there though, as Janssen was left in and had a 1-2-3 inning to put the Indians away in the top of the ninth. Toronto took their big lead in the third inning, as Ubaldo Jimenez was absolutely rocked. Jimenez gave up a double immediately, and then a two-run homerun to Edwin Encarnacion. Yunel Escobar then had a two-run homerun of his own, but Jimenez was still left in. Then, J.P. Arencibia hit a double and got an RBI, and Scott Barnes came in for JImenez.
It didn't get much easier for Barnes though, who gave up two runs before the inning was over as Escobar came back up to bat for the second time that inning, striking out looking. Toronto had two runs in the first and one in the fifth, which were deciding factors in holding off Cleveland's comeback.
The series is now split at one game apiece and the Indians will try to rebound on Sunday at 1:07 p.m., as Derek Lowe takes the mound against Carlos Villanueva.
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