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Carmona dominant as Indians hold off Rangers

Jul 21, 2007 - 5:12 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Fausto Carmona has been a major reason for the success of the Cleveland Indians this season. He was key in helping the team continue its success against the Texas Rangers on Friday.

Carmona was superb over eight innings and Travis Hafner crushed a two-run homer as the Indians withstood a late comeback attempt to post a 3-2 victory over the Rangers.

Victor Martinez had three doubles and scored a run and Ryan Garko extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games for Cleveland, which has won six straight meetings with Texas - including four this season.

"I was able to get some good wood on the ball tonight, and when you do that, things can happen," Martinez said.

Carmona (12-4) yielded just three hits and three walks to win his fourth consecutive start.

"I thought Carmona was really consistent tonight," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "He was able to make adjustments during the game that were good, and I thought he got a little better through the middle of the game."

The 23-year-old Dominican struck out seven en route to his best performance since recording his first career shutout vs. Minnesota on May 17.

"I felt good about my slider tonight, but I had to make adjustments because sooner or later, hitters were going to start looking for it," Carmona said through an interpreter. "All three of my pitches were working tonight, but I got most of my strikeouts on changeups."

The righthander allowed only a single by Mark Teixeira in the first, a double by Ramon Vazquez in the third and a base hit by Gerald Laird in the fifth. His lowest total of hits allowed was recorded on September 15, when he yielded two against the Twins.

Closer Joe Borowski nearly wasted the masterpiece by allowing two runs, two hits and a walk in the ninth. But he struck out Brad Wilkerson with the bases loaded to record his 28th save in 31 opportunities.

"None of my saves are uninteresting," Borowski said. "I tend to take it to the extreme. Thankfully, with the bases loaded, I was able to collect myself and strike out Wilkerson on a gyro ball."

Cleveland opened the scoring in the fifth, when Josh Barfield hit a one-out double, moved to third on a wild pitch by Texas starter Brandon McCarthy and scored on Grady Sizemore's groundout.

An inning later, the Indians increased their lead as Martinez hit his third double down the right field line and scored when Hafner ripped the first pitch he saw over the right field wall for a 3-0 bulge.

"It was a fastball in on the first pitch," McCarthy said.

McCarthy (4-7) lasted 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs, six hits and three walks in falling to 0-3 in his last six starts.

"We lost," he said. "There were some positives, but I didn't do enough. In the middle of the game, my mechanics were starting to fall apart. I got us behind, and it shouldn't have happened."

Garko hit a leadoff single in the second inning to stretch the second-longest hitting streak by an Indian this season. Casey Blake recorded a 26-game run from May 20-June 17.

Teixeira had two hits - including an RBI single in the ninth - for the Rangers, who have lost three games in a row for the eighth time this season.