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Carmona rebounds in Indians' win over Red Sox

Aug 3, 2010 - 3:49 AM BOSTON(AP) -- Cleveland's kids tested well - both on and off the field.

Fausto Carmona rebounded from his worst start of the season with seven solid innings, Shelley Duncan had a career-high four hits and the Indians held on to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-5 on Monday night.

Facing a Red Sox team that won in its last at-bat the past two days, the young Indians were faced with a challenge and they responded.

"It means a lot," manager Manny Acta said. "I think our kids grew a bit little more today."

The victory proved costly when catcher Carlos Santana was taken off the field on a stretcher with his left leg in an air cast after blocking home for an out in the seventh inning. Acta said that "he tested well with the trainers," though, and there doesn't appear to be any serious damage to ligaments. Santana is expected back in Cleveland for an MRI exam on Tuesday.

Carmona (11-8), who was hammered for seven runs in 2 2-3 innings against the Yankees last Wednesday, allowed only two runs and eight hits. Duncan had three singles, a double and drove in two runs as the Indians won their third straight road game for first time this season.

Duncan said he hopes the Indians, with just two players on the roster or disabled list over the age of 30, will grow from their win in Fenway Park.

"It was a lot of fun for us," he said. "I think for the rest of the year you're going to see a lot of people playing with no fear. I think we'll be fun to watch."

Adrian Beltre belted two homers and drove in five runs for Boston, which lost first baseman Kevin Youkilis to injury. The Red Sox fell behind 6-1 with John Lackey (10-6) on the mound, before Beltre hit a solo homer in the seventh and a three-run shot over the Green Monster in the eighth. Chris Gomez stopped the rally by working the ninth for his 13th save.

"We dug ourselves a hole," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We tried to get out of it, but we couldn't do it."

Santana was injured when right fielder Shin-Soo Choo fired a strike and he blocked the plate with his leg as Ryan Kalish came sliding in hard. He remained on the ground for several minutes before being taken off on a stretch. The crowd gave him a nice ovation.

"He's a good player. I feel so bad," Choo said.

Youkilis left the game with a jammed right thumb. He lined out to short to end the first, grabbed his hand in pain, but stayed in the game until the top of the third.

"He's pretty sore," said Francona, adding that Youkilis will have an MRI exam on Tuesday morning. "He's had a bone a bruise in that area. It swelled up quickly."

Lackey was tagged for six runs on nine hits, walked four and struck out seven in 5 1-3 innings. He had allowed two or fewer runs in each of his last three starts.

"The first three innings I had some of the best stuff I've had all year," he said. "In the sixth inning I lost the feel and pretty much stunk."

Cleveland jumped ahead 2-1 on Duncan's two-run double in the fourth, after Matt LaPorta singled and moved to third on Jordan Brown's first career hit - a fan-intereference double down the right-field line. The Indians made it 3-1 in the fifth when Trevor Crowe scored on Choo's double-play grounder, and chased Lackey with three more runs in the sixth.

He walked in a run before Choo lined reliever Dustin Richardson's first pitch to right for a two-run single that made it 6-1.

Beltre's sacrifice fly made it 1-0 in the first. The Red Sox might have scored more, but Choo made a running, leaping grab with runners on first and third. Carmona walked the next hitter before fanning Bill Hall and Eric Patterson.

Carmona also got out of a first-and-third, no-out jam in the fifth by striking out Patterson and getting Marco Scutaro to hit into a double play.

Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield pitched two innings of relief on his 44th birthday and became just the second Red Sox player ever to play at that age. Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski is the other.

NOTES: LHP David Huff will start for Cleveland on Tuesday. ... The Indians' Travis Hafner took BP before the game. He's been out the last five games because of fatigue in his surgically repaired right shoulder, but a trip to the DL remains a possibility. "There's still some fatigue in there," he said after the game. ... Red Sox OF Jacoby Ellsbury, on the DL since May 28 with fractured ribs, will play his second game for Triple-A Pawtucket on a rehab assignment Tuesday.