Carmona, Indians Edge Beckett, Red Sox, 1-0
Red-hot Fausto Carmona blanked the BoSox on Wednesday. (AP Images)
Fausto Carmona pitched eight shutout innings against Boston, the team that blasted him when he flopped as a closer last season, leading the Cleveland Indians over the Red Sox, 1-0, on Wednesday night at Jacobs Field.
Carmona (13-4) improved to 5-0 in July, allowing four singles and raising his scoreless innings streak to 18. The hard-throwing righthander was just slightly better than Josh Beckett (13-4), who lost on the road for the first time since last September.
After losing the first two games of the series, the Indians rewarded their backers with a payday of -107 on the moneyline (meaning a winning wager of $107 would net a $100 profit).
The 23-year-old Carmona had not faced the Red Sox since blowing consecutive save chances at Fenway Park last season, two outings three nights apart that rattled the righthander and all but finished the Indians’ experiment with him as their closer. But put back in the rotation this season, Carmona has become one of the AL’s top starters, and one of the major reasons the Indians are back in playoff contention.
After throwing 113 pitches, Carmona was replaced by Joe Borowski, who worked the ninth for his 29th save. Borowski struck out Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia to start the ninth before retiring David Ortiz on a soft pop to third. Ortiz returned after missing five games because of a shoulder injury and went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
The Red Sox had their winning streak stopped at five.
Beckett came in 6-0 with a 1.71 ERA in six starts away from Fenway Park. He nearly matched Carmona pitch for pitch, but gave up a solo homer to Franklin Gutierrez in the third as the Indians duplicated Boston’s 1-0 victory on Tuesday.
In other early American League games on Wednesday:
Los Angeles Angels 7, Oakland 6: Francisco Rodriguez blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning, but the Angels rallied for a winning run in the bottom of the inning. Rodriguez (4-2) took the ball with a 6-3 cushion before Travis Buck ignited the three-run rally with a bloop double and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Nick Swisher. Rodriguez forced in another run with a bases-loaded walk to Mark Kotsay and Marco Scutaro tied it with a sacrifice fly. Casey Kotchman singled with one out in the Angels’ ninth, advanced to second on a groundout, took third on a passed ball by Rob Bowen and scored when Maicer Izturis rapped a 2-and-1 pitch to leftfield against Joe Kennedy (3-9). L.A. paid -150.
Toronto 13, Minnesota 1: Gregg Zaun homered and drove in four runs, and the Blue Jays tied a franchise record with an 11-run sixth inning as they completed a three-game sweep at Rogers Centre. Toronto (51-50) has won a season-high five in a row to move over .500 for the first time since June 27, when it was 39-38. Minnesota (51-50) lost its fourth consecutive game, matching a season worst. The Jays paid -155.
Baltimore 6, Tampa Bay 1: Erik Bedard (10-4) allowed one run in six innings to earn his sixth straight victory, and the Orioles paid -220 at home.
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