Losing Streak Ends at Five for Indians

Dave Burba’s face was bright red.

After watching Bill Haselman’s lazy fly ball somehow fall in for a single in the seventh inning, Burba stood behind the pitcher’s mound and fumed.

“I was mad,” he said. “Not at the guys for not catching it, but because that’s the kind of thing that’s been happening to us. Naturally, it upset me.”

Later, Burba had cooled down and the Indians were once again smiling after stopping a season-high five-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Cleveland on Monday night.

Jim Thome drove in three runs and Burba (8-6) won for the first time since June 19 as Cleveland returned home from a rough weekend in New York to win for only the third time in 12 games.

Omar Vizquel had three hits for the Indians.

Toronto 4, Chicago 3--Tony Batista homered with two out in the 11th inning at Chicago.

Shawn Green extended his hitting streak to an American League season-high 24 games for Toronto, which has won nine of its last 10 games and leads the Boston Red Sox by 1 1/2 games in the wild-card race.