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Sizemore delivers in clutch for Indians

May 4, 2007 - 4:22 AM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Grady Sizemore ended his hitless drought at the perfect time for the Cleveland Indians.

Sizemore delivered a two-out RBI double in the eighth inning, snapping a tie and lifting the Indians to a 6-5 triumph Thursday over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Victor Martinez went 4-for-4 and drove in two runs for Cleveland, which completed a three-game sweep in winning for the 10th time in 11 contests.

"We're battling hard," Martinez said. "We always think we are in the game. We're playing hard and getting production one through nine."

Entering without a hit in his previous nine at-bats, Sizemore went 0-for-4 before stepping to the plate with runners on the corners and two outs in the eighth. On a 3-2 offering from Jason Frasor (1-1), the 24-year-old drilled the ball into the right-center field gap, plating Mike Rouse with the go-ahead run.

"I got ahead in the count, and that helped me because (Frasor) had to stay around the plate," Sizemore said. "I wanted to drive something and got it up the gap."

"It's discouraging," Frasor said. "I tried to sneak a pitch in there and he got into it."

Rouse, who scored a pair of runs in the game, ignited the rally for with a two-out single and moved to third on Josh Barfield's second base hit of the night.

"We got a lot of big hits tonight," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We had good at-bats up and down the lineup. A lot of guys came through."

The double made a winner of Aaron Fultz (3-0), who struck out one in a perfect top of the eighth. Joe Borowski came on to retire the side in order in the ninth for his 10th save.

With the loss, Toronto has failed to record a win at Jacobs Field for the second straight season. The Blue Jays have dropped 11 of their last 12 road games against the Indians.

"It's good to get out of here," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "We ran into a hot team."

Lefthander Cliff Lee made his season debut for the Indians after beginning the year on the disabled list with a strained right abdominal muscle. The 28-year-old lasted six innings, allowing five runs, nine hits and a walk while striking out four.

"I don't think I am ever happy giving up five runs in six innings," Lee said. "We won, that's the main thing."

Recalled from Class AAA Syracuse earlier in the day, Dustin McGowan worked five frames for Toronto. The righthander yielded five runs and six hits with five walks and four strikeouts.

"I liked what I saw," Gibbons said. "He did a pretty good job against a tough lineup."

Losers of four of their previous six games, the Blue Jays stormed to a 4-0 lead in this one, scoring twice in both the second and third innings.

Alex Rios led off the second with a double and Lyle Overbay followed with an infield single. Jason Phillips drove in Rios with a two-base hit and Matt Stairs plated Overbay with a groundout.

In the third, Frank Thomas delivered a one-out single before Troy Glaus launched his fifth home run of the season for a four-run bulge.

But Cleveland, which completed a 7-1 homestand, cut the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning as Jhonny Peralta and Rouse started the frame with walks and Barfield stroked an RBI single. After retiring the next two batters, McGowan uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Rouse to cross the plate.

Following an intentional walk to Travis Hafner, Martinez singled to right field, plating David Dellucci.

"I'm hitting the ball hard and finding some holes," Martinez said. "The hits are just falling in for me. I'm putting good swings on the ball."

The Indians nearly tied the contest in the fourth, but center fielder Rios - who committed an error on a fly ball by Sizemore - threw out Barfield at the plate to end the inning. Tempers flared after the play, with on-deck hitter Dellucci bumping chests with Phillips after apparently overhearing the catcher's comments to Barfield and both benches and bullpens emptying.

" saw a very hard-nosed, great play," Dellucci said. "That's how we are going to play the game. If someone is going to get in a teammate's face, I'm going to stick up for him. That's what we are about."

The fracas began after Barfield crashed into Phillips in an attempt to jar the ball loose.

"I just went in hard," Barfield said. "It wasn't a cheap shot. It was a baseball play."

"I got excited," Phillips said. "I hadn't been run over in a while."

No punches were thrown and no ejections were made.

Cleveland moved ahead in the fifth as Martinez delivered a one-out RBI single and scored on Ryan Garko's two-out triple. But Phillips came through for Toronto in the sixth, following a double by Overbay with one of his own to forge a 5-5 tie.