After a dismal first few starts, C.C. Sabathia finally returned to his Cy Young form.
Sabathia found his groove pitching six shutout innings and striking out 11 and the Indians pounded out 17 hits in a 15-1 rout of Kansas City on Tuesday night.
“C.C. was back to his old self tonight,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “He threw the ball very consistently. You could just tell from the first inning on he was in control. He was finishing off pitches. He used both sides of the plate and went up and down when he needed to.”
Sabathia had given up 27 runs over his first four starts, including nine in each of his past two starts.
Against Kansas City, he gave up only four hits and two walks.
“It definitely feels good to have a start like this,” Sabathia said. “I just want to keep going out and keep building off this.”
Sabathia struck out the side in each of the first two innings while also giving up three singles. He gave up another single to David DeJesus leading off the third, got a double-play grounder from Mark Grudzielanek and then fanned Mark Teahen for the second time.
In other AL games, it was: Boston 7, Los Angeles 6; Detroit 10, Texas 2; Cleveland 15, Kansas City 1; New York 9, Chicago 5; Tampa Bay 6, Toronto 4; Seattle 4, Baltimore 2; Minnesota 5, Oakland 4.
Casey Blake, the No. 9 hitter, was 4-for-4 with six RBIs. He had a single and a grand slam and two RBI doubles. David Dellucci and Jhonny Peralta also homered and Franklin Gutierrez had a three-run double for Cleveland, which came in with the 10th-worst run total and lowest slugging percentage in the league.
“We had it going tonight in all areas of the game,” Blake said. “It seemed like C.C. set the tone out there. He was C.C. tonight. And we just had a lot of guys swing the bat really well.”
Red Sox 7, Angels 6
At Boston, Dustin Pedroia’s tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning helped Boston rally for its sixth straight win, after ace Josh Beckett was scratched from his start with a stiff neck.
Jacoby Ellsbury hit two solo homers and Kevin Youkilis added a two-run shot for Boston, while Pedroia went 4-for-5 with three doubles and a single.
Boston emergency starter David Pauley, recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Pawtucket, gave up five runs on seven hits in 4 1-3 innings.
Mike Timlin (2-1) retired one batter in the eighth for the win and Jonathan Papelbon got three outs for his eighth save.
Tigers 10, Rangers 2
At Detroit, Magglio Ordonez homered and reached 1,000 RBIs for his career, and Ramon Santiago homered for the first time since 2003 and drove in three runs to help Detroit beat Texas.
Edgar Renteria had four hits for the Tigers, who have won six of nine. Santiago went 2-for-3 with three RBIs in place of the injured Placido Polanco.
Justin Verlander (1-3) pitched six innings, allowing a run and six hits. He lowered his ERA to 5.93.
Vicente Padilla (2-2) allowed seven runs and eight hits in three innings.
Yankees 9, White Sox 5
At Chicago, Bobby Abreu hit a grand slam in the seventh inning, Chien-Ming Wang earned his 50th career victory and New York did just fine without A-Rod, beating Chicago.
Abreu connected for his seventh career grand slam off Octavio Dotel with two outs in the seventh to rally New York from a 3-2 deficit.
Johnny Damon hit a three-run homer off reliever Matt Thornton in the eighth to make it 9-4, and Jason Giambi had a solo shot in the second.
Wang (4-0) worked six innings to become the first Yankees starter to win his first four decisions since Kevin Brown won his first five in 2004.
Jose Contreras (1-2) gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings.
Rays 6, Blue Jays 4
At Kissimmee, Fla., Eric Hinske drove in two runs and helped Tampa Bay beat Toronto at Disney World.
Hinske doubled in the second inning and added a RBI triple off Jesse Litsch (2-1) in the fourth before leading off the sixth with a homer – his sixth of the season – off reliever Jesse Carlson.
Rookie Evan Longoria had a solo homer – his second of the season – off Litsch.
James Shields (2-1) allowed four runs and six hits over seven innings to win for the first time since beating Baltimore in Tampa Bay’s season opener.
Mariners 4, Orioles 2
At Seattle, Jose Vidro’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth broke a tie, and Arthur Rhodes picked up his first win in nearly three years as Seattle beat Baltimore.
Seattle closer J.J. Putz returned after missing 18 games with a ribcage injury to pitch the ninth for his second save in three chances in his first appearance since April 1.
Jeremy Guthrie (0-2) went 7 2-3 innings, his longest outing of the season, but got very little offensive support.
Rhodes (1-0) allowed a leadoff single to open the eighth in relief of Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, but got a double play and strikeout for his first win since May 23, 2005, while pitching for Cleveland.
Twins 5, Athletics 4
At Oakland, Calif., Jason Kubel hit a go-ahead bloop single in the eighth, and Craig Monroe drove in three runs and homered for the first time this season in Minnesota’s victory over Oakland.
A’s starter Joe Blanton (1-4) remained winless at home in 2008, dropping to 0-4 in the Coliseum. The A’s had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Juan Rincon (2-0) pitched a scoreless seventh for the victory and Pat Neshek had a perfect eighth. Joe Nathan then finished for his seventh save in as many tries despite allowing Mike Sweeney’s pinch-hit single. Nathan struck out three.
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