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Carrasco pitches into 9th, Indians stop skid

Jun 8, 2011 - 5:32 AM Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Carlos Carrasco gave up just three hits in 8 1/3 scoreless innings, Shelley Duncan drove in the only run and the Cleveland Indians snapped their season-long losing streak with a 1-0 win over the Minnesota Twins.

Carrasco (5-3) retired the first 13 batters he faced and ended with six strikeouts and just one walk for the Indians, who had dropped five straight games, including a 6-4 loss in the series opener on Monday.

"Carlos was tremendous," Indians manager Manny Acta said of his starter. "He had a very good fastball and kept it down at their knees and got a ton of groundballs."

The win also snapped an eight-game losing streak to their Central Division rivals dating back to last season.

Francisco Liriano (3-6) returned from the 15-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation and allowed an unearned run in five innings for the Twins, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. He struck out seven batters and surrendered just three hits.

"I think we ran into a buzz saw pitcher tonight," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He was very good and didn't give us much of a chance to get things going."

Carlos Santana led off the bottom of the fourth with a double down the left field line, which Delmon Young misplayed in the corner to allow Santana to scurry to third on the error. Duncan's weak chopper to short pushed Santana across for the game's lone run.

Young's one-out double to dead center in the fifth broke up Carrasco's perfect game bid. Luke Hughes then legged out an deep infield hit up the middle to put runners on the corners.

The threat was squashed, though, by Carrasco, who got Brian Dinkelman to pop up behind the plate and Rene Rivera to strike out swinging to keep the 1-0 lead.

Carrasco gave up a one-out hit to Ben Revere in the ninth to spell the end of his outing. Chris Perez came in to close out the game for his 15th save, getting Alexi Casilla to ground out and Michael Cuddyer to strike out looking to end the game.

Game Notes

The Twins optioned Anthony Slama to Triple-A Rochester to make room for Liriano...Orlando Cabrera's second-inning double gave him 1,999 career hits...Carrasco threw 104 pitches, 72 for strikes.