Sabathia Impressive Again

Rookie C.C. Sabathia matched a season high with 11 strikeouts, and Juan Gonzalez and Ellis Burks hit consecutive home runs Wednesday night for the Cleveland Indians in a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Cleveland.

Sabathia (14-4) allowed five hits in seven innings to improve to 7-1 since the All-Star break.

The 6-foot-7 left-hander walked three and worked his way out of several jams.

Danys Baez pitched the eighth and Bob Wickman the ninth, earning his 25th save, as the Indians won for the 11th time in 16 games.

Boston threatened in the ninth, putting runners on first and third with one out. Wickman struck out Jose Offerman before walking pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg to load the bases. Wickman then got Trot Nixon on a groundout.

Gonzalez and Burks homered in the sixth off rookie Casey Fossum (1-1), who gave up two runs and five hits in 52/3 innings in his third major league start.

Manny Ramirez homered for the Red Sox, who lost their fourth in a row. Boston trails the New York Yankees by five games in the American League East and Oakland by five in the wild-card race.

Ramirez, who left Cleveland as a free agent for an eight-year, $160-million deal with Boston, was booed every time he batted.

Fossum took a two-hit shutout into the sixth and had two out when he left a 2-0 fastball over the inside part of the plate and Gonzalez hit his 31st homer.

Three pitches later, Burks homered for the first time since July 14 with a 418-foot shot to nearly the same spot as Gonzalez. Burks had gone 82 at-bats between homers and hasn’t been able to drive the ball as well since having his right thumb broken by a pitch in July.

The Indians were managed for the second consecutive game by bench coach Grady Little, filling in while Charlie Manuel recovers from abdominal surgery.

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Oakland 4, Baltimore 1--Tim Hudson won for the first time in four starts, and Eric Chavez and Ramon Hernandez homered at Baltimore, helping the A’s to their fourth consecutive victory.

Jason Giambi got his 101st run batted in, becoming the first Oakland player with four consecutive 100-RBI seasons. Oakland, which has won six in a row on the road, is 33-13 since the All-Star break and 20-7 in August.

Hudson (15-7) became the latest pitcher to excel at the expense of the Orioles, who have been outscored, 29-4, in losing five in a row. Coming off three starts in which he went 0-1 with a 7.31 earned-run average, Hudson allowed one run, two hits and six walks in 61/3 innings.

Jason Isringhausen, the fourth Oakland pitcher, got two outs to complete the three-hitter.

The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the third on successive, two-out doubles by Jeremy and Jason Giambi. Chavez hit his 20th homer in the fourth to make it 2-0.

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Toronto 3, New York 2--Carlos Delgado hit a two-run homer and Roy Halladay beat the Yankees for the first time in five career starts, leading the Blue Jays at New York.

Delgado homered in the third inning off Sterling Hitchcock (3-3) following Shannon Stewart’s run-scoring single.

Halladay (3-1) pitched in and out of trouble, giving up run-scoring singles to David Justice in the fourth inning and Paul O’Neill in the fifth.

Dan Plesac pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Billy Koch got his 30th save.

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Seattle 5, Tampa Bay 2--Bret Boone hit his 30th homer and had three RBIs, and Jamie Moyer tied a career-high with his seventh consecutive win for the Mariners at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The major league-leading Mariners (95-38) avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season. Seattle, looking to become the first team since the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates not to lose three consecutive games, has lost two in a row 11 times.

Boone became only the third American League second baseman to hit 30 homers in a season with his two-run shot in the sixth off Tanyon Sturtze (8-11). He joins Bobby Grich (1979) and Joe Gordon (1940-47-48) in accomplishing the feat.

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Chicago 8, Detroit 3--Josh Paul had career bests of four hits and four RBIs to lead the White Sox at Detroit.

Paul, who entered the game with no home runs and four RBIs in 96 at-bats this season, hit a three-run homer in the second and an RBI double in the fourth.

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Minnesota 10, Texas 8--Eric Milton pitched seven strong innings, and Corey Koskie hit a two-run homer to help the Twins hold on at Minneapolis.

Dustan Mohr had three RBIs in his major league debut for Minnesota.