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Indians RHP Slocum seeks first major league win

Sep 29, 2006 - 1:19 PM Tampa Bay (61-98) at Cleveland (75-84) 7:05 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - Seeking his first major league win, Brian Slocum squares off against a pitcher who achieved that milestone earlier this week.

Slocum duels fellow rookie Brian Stokes on Friday when the Cleveland Indians host the second of four games against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

After six relief appearances for the Indians, the 25-year-old Slocum (0-0, 7.71 ERA) made his first major league start Saturday at Texas. The righthander allowed one run and four hits in four innings of an eventual 6-3 triumph.

The next day, Stokes (1-0, 6.35) recorded the first win of his career in Tampa Bay's 11-4 victory against the New York Yankees. Stokes surrendered three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings of that game, recording two walks and two strikeouts.

Another rookie, Ryan Garko, hit a go-ahead RBI double to cap a three-run bottom of the eighth inning as the Indians rallied for a 5-4 victory in Thursday's series opener. Cleveland has won three of its last four games at Jacobs Field after going 1-5 on its previous homestand.

The Devil Rays have lost 30 of 33 games away from Tropicana Field since the beginning of July, falling to a major league-worst 20-57 on the road. Tampa Bay is trying to avoid becoming the first team since the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943 with as few as three road victories after the All-Star break.