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Escobar's two-run double in eighth leads Braves back

Jun 16, 2007 - 3:37 AM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Rookie Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a good feeling when he saw C.C. Sabathia take the mound in the ninth inning.

Rookie Yunel Escobar hit a two-run double in the ninth inning off C.C. Sabathia as the Atlanta Braves rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4, on Friday night.

Escobar's hit, which alluded a diving attempt at the warning track in left-center by left fielder David Dellucci ended Sabathia's bid to become the majors' second 10-game winner.

"Honestly, when I saw C.C. out go back out there, I thought we had a good chance to win," Saltalamacchia said. "He was over a 100 pitches, in that situation I think you go with your closer."

After the Braves battled back against the tall lefthander, Casey Blake hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth off Rafael Soriano to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and provide Cleveland a 4-3 lead.

"We felt like with C.C. going out there, our chances were great of winning," said Blake, whose hitting streak is the longest since Matt Williams had a 24-game hitting streak in 1997. "I really don't care about the hitting streak. It doesn't matter too much since we lost tonight."

In search of his second complete game of the season, Sabathia took the mound in the ninth but yielded a leadoff double to Saltalamacchia before Brian McCann reached on an error by shortstop Jhonny Peralta. After a sacrifice, Escobar ripped a 2-0 offering to give Atlanta the lead.

"Everytime he's in a clutch situation, he gets a hit," said Saltalamacchia about Escobar. "I said earlier that this kid can hit."

Sabathia (9-2) departed after the hit, being charged with five runs and 12 hits in 8 1/3 innings.

"I went to the well one too many times," Sabathia said. "I probably made the same pitch too many times. It's dissapointing. Tonight it's all on my shoulders. I take all the blame."

With closer Joe Borowski unavailable, Indians manger Eric Wedge decided to let his ace try to get the win than go with one of his other relievers.

"He was our guy," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "The seventh and eighth innings were the best he's pitched the whole night. I was going to fly with him after the eighth. He was strong. It didn't work out for us, but he's our guy."

A night after losing a 2-0 lead in the ninth, the Braves were able to turn the tables on AL Central leaders.

"It's nice to be on the other end of a game like this," Saltalamacchia said. "That win is going to get us going."

Soriano (2-0) picked up the win and former Indians closer Bob Wickman struck out Blake with runners on first and second for his 12th save in 15 chances.

"It was fairly strange," Blake said. "That wasn't too much fun out there. Wicky and I were good friends. We got along great. There's nothing in me that doesn't want to back down. I have played with him long enough to that I should know how he was going to pitch me. He won tonight."

Victor Martinez staked Cleveland to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single against Atlanta starter Buddy Carlyle and extended its lead to 3-0 in the fourth on an RBI single by Ryan Garko and an RBI groundout by Josh Barfield. The single by Garko snapped a 1-for-31 streak.

Atlanta got on the board in the fifth on Chris Woodward's RBI single that snapped Sabathia's scoreless streak at 22 innings. It also was the first run the lefthander had allowed in the month of June.

The Braves tied the game in the sixth. Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Jeff Francouer and Matt Diaz started the sixth with consecutive singles. Sabathia struck out Saltalamacchia for the first out, but McCann tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right.

"We played great against an outstanding pitcher," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We made our comeback and it turned out to be a great win."

Carlyle allowed three runs, two earned on six hits in six innings.