Sep 16, 2007, 2:59 GMT
Cleveland, OH - Fausto Carmona was brilliant, tossing eight shutout innings, and Travis Hafner hit a solo home run as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals, 6-0, in the middle of a three-game series at Jacobs Field.
Carmona (17-8) gave up only three hits and struck out nine, while retiring the last 16 batters he faced to lower his ERA to an American League-best 3.07.
Cleveland remained 5 1/2 games ahead of Detroit in the American League Central Division. The Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3, on Saturday.
Casey Blake had a two-run single, while Asdrubal Cabrera and Franklin Gutierrez also knocked in a run for the Indians, who have won 17 of their last 21 games.
David DeJesus, Billy Butler and Jason Smith had the only hits for the Royals, who have dropped nine of their last 10 and have now been blanked eight times this season.
Zack Greinke (6-6) suffered the loss, giving up two runs -- one earned -- on four hits over 5 1/3 innings. The right-hander struck out three and walked five.
After Carmona retired the Royals in order in the top of the first, the Tribe got on the board in the home half. Grady Sizemore reached base on an error by Ross Gload and came around to score when Cabrera lined a double to right.
The Royals only scoring threat of the game was in the third when KC had runners on the corners with two outs, but Carmona got Mark Grudzielanek to ground out to second to end the inning.
Hafner's 22nd home run of the season, a shot to right in the bottom of the third, gave the Indians a 2-0 advantage.
Cleveland got some insurance in the eighth, putting four more on the board. Victor Martinez got things started with a leadoff double and came around to score when Garko grounded an infield single to shortstop Jason Smith, who threw the ball away, moving Garko to second. Josh Barfield came in to run for Garko and advanced to third on a groundout. After Kenny Lofton walked and stole second, putting runners on second and third with one down, Gutierrez hit a sacrifice fly to right, but the ball was dropped by Mark Teahen allowing another run to score with Gutierrez reaching second. Blake's two-run single made it a 6-0 game.
Rafael Perez came in for the ninth and struck out the side to end the game.
Game Notes
Attendance was 32,113... Martinez now has a 10-game hitting streak...Hafner has 20 RBI in his last 23 games...Carmona and C.C. Sabathia now have 17 wins apiece and are the first Tribe pitchers to win at least 17 since Charles Nagy and Bartolo Colon accomplished the feat in 1999...Cleveland improved to 43-22 against AL Central teams.
© 2007 The Sports Network
Game Notes.
Your Talkback on this Story