A-Rod hits 37th HR, Hughes dominates as Yankees top Tribe

Aug 11, 2007, 2:10 GMT

Cleveland, OH - Phil Hughes hurled six solid innings, and Alex Rodriguez belted his major league-best 37th home run as New York downed Cleveland, 6-1, in the opener of a three-game set at Jacobs Field.

The highly-regarded Hughes (2-1) was spectacular for the Yankees, who have won six of seven games, moved to within five games of Boston in the AL East and tied Seattle for the AL wild card lead. In just his fourth major league start, the former first-round pick mixed a sharp-breaking curve in with his fastball to befuddle the Indians. Hughes allowed just one run on four hits, while walking one and fanning six to pick up the win.

Another highly-touted youngster, Joba Chamberlain, picked up from there. Chamberlain dominated the Tribe in two perfect innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced. Mariano Rivera then finished things with a perfect ninth.

Derek Jeter was 3-for-4 and drove in a run for New York, while Bobby Abreu was 1-for-4 with two RBI.

Josh Barfield homered to account for the Indians only offense.

Fausto Carmona (13-7) allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings to lose his third straight start.

Rodriguez put the Yankees on top by leading off the second with a mammoth shot to dead center, the 501st of his career. Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano then followed with consecutive singles and moved up on Wilson Betemit's sacrifice bunt before Jose Molina's groundout made it a 2-0 game.

The Yankees added another run in the third. Johnny Damon blooped a single just out of the reach of Jhonny Peralta, moved to third on Jeter's single and scored when Abreu beat out a possible double-play ball to short.

New York tacked on another run in the fifth. Melky Cabrera singled to right, moved up a base when Damon grounded back to the box and crossed the plate on Jeter's RBI single up the middle.

The Tribe finally got to Hughes in the fifth when Barfield ripped a two-out homer to center, his third of the season.

The Yankees got two insurance runs off Aaron Fultz in the eighth to put things away. Jeter doubled to right-center and scored when Abreu lined a triple just inside the first base line. After Rodriguez was intentionally walked, Matsui chased home Abreu with a chopper to first.

Game Notes

The Indians honored Larry Doby as the entire team wore his retired No. 14. Doby broke the American League color barrier in July of 1947...New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens decided not to appeal his five-game suspension and started serving the penalty on Friday for the opener of a weekend series against Cleveland. Clemens was suspended for five games while manager Joe Torre was tagged for one game for their roles during Tuesday's Yankees-Blue Jays fracas in Toronto. Torre served his suspension by missing Friday's game...Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was at the game... Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner underwent an MRI Friday that showed left knee inflammation and a mild hamstring strain. Hafner was listed as day- to-day and will likely miss the entire series.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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