News
Indians beat O's to snap 11-game skid
Carmona's solid start helps club avoid historic losing streak
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
09/25/09 10:57 PM ET
CLEVELAND -- A nearly historic losing streak is, well, history. That slight breeze you just felt was the collective exhale of an Indians team that snapped its skid on Friday night, one loss shy of tying a team record. Yes, history was on the line and the Indians wanted no part of it. They rode a strong start from Fausto Carmona to a 4-2 victory over the Orioles at Progressive Field. It was their first win since Sept. 12 and just their fourth win of this month. The Tribe had lost 11 in a row coming in -- the franchise's longest such streak since the 1931 team dropped 12 consecutive games to set a club record that has stood for 68 years and will continue to stand. After the big win, the sweet sounds of the rock band Saliva played in the clubhouse. At least, they sounded pretty sweet to closer Kerry Wood, who capped the win for his 20th save. "It's nice to walk into a clubhouse and hear music instead of crickets," Wood said. "I don't know who's playing, but it sounds pretty good. It could be in German, for all I care." No matter what language you speak, if you watched this club play the last two weeks, you'd know it wasn't pretty. But when it came to avoiding the ignominy of equaling that dirty dozen mark, the Indians drew a good card when the O's came to town. This was a pairing of kindred souls, as the two clubs are a combined 62 games under .500. And the Baltimore came to town bearing a seven-game losing streak of its own. Indeed, somebody had to win. The big winner, where the Tribe was concerned, was Carmona. He had allowed a total of 28 runs over his previous five outings. Therefore, he had nowhere to go but up. But he showed more than just an incremental improvement on Friday in limiting the O's to a pair of runs on nine hits with a walk and six strikeouts over six innings. "That's as good as we've seen him this year," manager Eric Wedge said. "The first inning, he threw nothing but strikes. When it did get away from him, he was able to reel it back in." The Orioles took an early lead on Carmona when former Indians first baseman Michael Aubrey ripped an RBI single in the second. Carmona, though, did not implode, which had happened often in the past. Instead, Carmona proceeded with calm. He got out of a two-on, none-out jam in the third. He struck out Matt Wieters and got Nick Markakis to ground into an inning-ending double play. After a perfect fourth, Carmona was in another pickle in the fifth. Felix Pie swatted a ground-rule double with two out and one on to put two runners in scoring position. But Carmona got Wieters looking at strike three and walked off the mound pumping his fist. Carmona would be celebrating again in the bottom of the inning, when the Tribe bats got on the board against O's starter David Hernandez. Luis Valbuena hit a leadoff homer, and Andy Marte and Lou Marson smacked consecutive doubles, the latter of which scored Marte to give the Tribe a 2-1 lead. Trevor Crowe put down a sacrifice bunt to move Marson over and third baseman Melvin Mora's throw to third was errant, allowing Marson to score for a 3-1 Indians lead. The O's got back within a run in the sixth, when Nick Markakis took Carmona deep with a leadoff blast. But Carmona got out of that inning without further damage to cap a strong performance. "Everything is slowing down a little bit," Carmona said through interpreter Luis Rivera. "I'm able to control the running game and execute the pitch." Carmona was working with the rookie catcher Marson for just the second time. Marson said he saw improvement in Carmona's command of his sinker. "He was throwing that sinker inside to lefties," Marson said. "Then he could throw the changeup and slider to get guys out. He definitely has it in there. It's just a matter of commanding his pitches." The Indians never had a commanding lead in the game, but thanks to Marson they got a big insurance run in the eighth. The Tribe loaded the bases, and Marson drew a walk to make it 4-2. "This is my first win behind the plate," said Marson, who was called up earlier this month. "It feels good to get my first couple RBIs and help out." The bullpen was also a big help. Tony Sipp, Jose Veras and Wood combined to hold the O's scoreless down the stretch. While this club has long been out of contention, no one imagined a prolonged losing streak of this magnitude. Wood admitted that it began to wear on the team. "After you lose four or five in a row, you start to anticipate things going wrong," Wood said. "It shouldn't be that way, but that's the nature of the beast." And the Indians finally slew that beast Friday night.Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
