Tampa Bay started left-hander Matt Moore on Saturday against the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe countered by handing the ball to Ubaldo Jimenez.
A week or two ago that would have been a major problem for the Indians.
On Saturday? Hey, no problem, as the Indians beat Tampa Bay, 12-3.
The Indians sent Moore (5-6) to the showers in the fifth inning, as they won their fourth consecutive game against a left-handed starter after starting the season 5-16 against lefties.
As for Jimenez, he continued to give Tribe fans hope that maybe he has finally remembered how to pitch. Jimenez (8-7) struck out eight in six innings of work, giving up five hits and walking just one. It was his first win in three starts.
Jimenez lowered his ERA to 4.50 and, since giving up seven runs in a 12-6 loss to the White Sox on May 27 that sent his ERA to a season-high 5.79, Jimenez has a 2.93 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 46 innings of work.
The Tribe jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning thanks to an RBI double by Lou Marson, a groundout from Jack Hannahan that scored Shelley Duncan and an RBI double from Aaron Cunningham.
The Indians made it 5-0 in third. Asdrubal Cabrera opened the inning with a walk and advanced to third on a double by Jose Lopez. Brantley’s RBI groundout scored Cabrera, and Lopez scored on a Carlos Santana double.
Tampa rallied for two runs in the fourth on a two-run home run by Luke Scott. After stopping his club-record hitless streak at 41 at bats Friday night with a home run off of Justin Masterson, Scott went deep for the second game in a row. Probably a good thing the Rays are leaving town after Sunday’s game; no telling what Scott might do to them.
The Tribe pushed the lead to 7-2 in the eighth inning as Duncan hit a two-run homer off reliever Wade Davis. It was Duncan’s eighth homer of the year and he has homered in four of his last six games.
Indians manager Manny Acta turned things over to the bullpen to start the seventh inning. Tony Sipp pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out one, and Vinnie Pestano pitched a scoreless eighth with a strikeout. Esmil Rogers pitched the ninth and gave up a solo home run to Tampa’s B.J. Upton to close out the scoring.
The Indians had eight hits in the game, with every starter, except for Cabrera, getting a hit.
The win, Cleveland’s fourth in the past five games and seventh in their past 10, keeps the Indians (44-40) in second place, three games behind the White Sox, who beat Toronto 2-0. Tampa has now lost nine of its last 13.
The two teams close out the first half of the season on Sunday in the series finale. Zach McAllister (3-1) takes on James Shield (8-5) at 1:05 p.m.
(Photo by The Associated Press)