Indians-Rangers: Cliff Lee Gets Ninth Win As Tribe Rolls 15-9

Tack on another 30 hits to the Indians / Rangers total.  That makes 92 hits in three games.  Even more amazing is that the Indians have 48 of them.

Apparently, the key to offense is the water in Texas.  Cleveland won its second in three games 15-9, earning at least a split in the four-game series. 

Even Cliff Lee couldn’t stop the Texas offense, but he did slow it down.  His ERA jumped to 2.45 after he gave up six earned runs on nine hits over the course of five innings.

On his departure, the scoreboard read 6-6, but the Indians offense went off for a five-run top of the sixth, earning Lee a share of the league lead with his ninth win of the season.

Ryan Garko led the way with four hits and six RBI.  Ben Francisco had five hits in six at bats. Dellucci also was 3-for-4 with three RBI’s.  The only starter not getting into the act was Jhonny Peralta, who went 0-for-6. 

After Texas opened up a one-run lead on an Ian Kinsler leadoff triple and a Michael Young single, Cleveland struck for four in the top of the second.

With one out, Casey Blake was safe at first on an error.  Shin-Soo Choo doubled, and moved to third on a Milton Bradley error, with Blake scoring. 

Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore both walked, loading the bases for Ben Francisco’s RBI single.  Victor Martinez hit a sacrifice-fly scoring Cabrera.  Garko singled, plating Sizemore.  Peralta flied out to end the inning.

Lee struck out two in the bottom of the second, and looked like he might be the man to shut down the Texas offense.

The bottom of the third, however, demonstrated Texas wasn’t going to go easily.  The Rangers scored four on a Kinsler single, a Young double, a Hamilton single and a Bradley home run.  That put Texas up 5-4.

The Tribe offense went right back to work, regaining the lead.  Sizemore homered, Francisco singled, and the third error of the night by Texas allowed Martinez to reach first base.  Garko singled in Francisco, and Peralta hit into a double play, but the Indians were back on top 6-5. 

After a Marlon Byrd single led off the bottom of the fifth,  Brandon Boggs hit a triple, the second of the night for Texas off Lee, and Byrd scored.  Lee closed out the inning with a strikeout, and was done after delivering 112 pitches.

With the game tied 6-6, the Indians salvaged the win for Lee.  They scored five in the top of the sixth, and another four in the top of the seventh, rounding out their night at 15 runs.  The sixth was highlighted by a David Dellucci three-run home run.  The seventh featured a two-single by Garko.

Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi did a great job of getting the game to the ninth with no further damage from the Texas offense.

In the ninth, Rick Bauer came on for the Indians, allowing three runs on three hits before ending the game.

C.C. Sabathia will oppose ex-Indians pitcher Kevin Millwood in the finale at 8:05 p.m. Eastern.