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Indians
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Buck powers Indians past Reds

May 22, 2011 - 1:17 AM

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Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Travis Buck's two-run homer in the seventh inning was all the offense the Cleveland Indians would need in a 2-1 pitching duel win over the Cincinnati Reds.

"We continue to find a new hero each game and today it was Travis Buck," Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. "He hit that big homer for us."

Josh Tomlin (6-1) threw seven solid innings in his first appearance against a National League team for Cleveland, which has taken the first two of a three- game set against its interleague Ohio rival. The starter gave up just one run on three hits and struck out three.

Homer Bailey was equally as strong for the Reds, but gave up the costly home run in the seventh to get his first loss of the season. Bailey (3-1) ended up allowing just four hits and had four strikeouts over seven-full frames.

Scott Rolen drove in the lone run in the loss, Cincinnati's fourth straight.

The pitching battle was evident early on with Bailey hurling a perfect 3 2/3 innings. Shin-Soo Choo, though, broke it up with a single into left field. Meanwhile, Tomlin retired 11 straight Reds, after a Jay Bruce walk in the second, before giving up a lead-off single to Ryan Hanigan in the sixth.

Tomlin finally had a costly hiccup in the seventh inning by pegging Brandon Phillips with one out. Bruce then singled into center field to put men on the corners.

Cleveland defense didn't help its starter when Rolen hit a playable grounder to Orlando Cabrera, which could have been an inning-ending double play, but the ball clipped off his glove and allowed Phillips to scurry home for the all-important first run of the game.

However, Bailey made a more devastating mistake during the home half. The pitcher elevated an 86-m.p.h. slider to Buck, who sent it into the right field seats for his first homer since April 20, 2010.

"I gave him a pitch he liked," Bailey said of Buck's homer. "The ball cleared the fence by two inches, but it doesn't matter."

Vinnie Pestano came into the eighth for the Indians and had three-straight strikeouts, despite giving up a leadoff single to Hanigan.

Chris Perez then entered in the ninth and worked around a two walks to end the game and get his 12th save of the season.

Game Notes

The Indians placed rookie hurler Alex White on the 15-day disabled list Saturday, one day after he left an outing against Cincinnati with right middle finger soreness...To fill White's roster spot, the Indians recalled pitcher Josh Judy from Columbus...The game was declared a sellout (40,631 in attendance)...Tomlin threw just 85 pitches, 57 of them were strikes.






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