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Lee looks to continue surge in season finale

Oct 1, 2006 - 2:26 PM Tampa Bay (61-100) at Cleveland (77-84) 1:05 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- The Cleveland Indians are finishing the season on a strong note, and Cliff Lee is one of the reasons.

The Indians will seek their eighth win in nine games when they send Lee to the mound in the season finale against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.

Lee (13-11, 4.46 ERA) looks to put the finishing touches on a strong end of the season. After a rough summer where the lefthander went just 3-5 between July and August, Lee has been great since the beginning of September, going 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA in five starts.

Lee bounced back from his one tough start in the final stretch Monday, yielding a run and four hits over seven innings of a 14-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. He has allowed a run or less in three of his last four outings.

Jason Hammel (0-5, 7.45) will try and turn around a rough rookie campaign in starting for the Devil Rays

The righthander has dropped his last three starts, including a 5-1 loss at Boston on Tuesday where he gave up five runs and nine hits in four innings.

Casey Blake homered twice to lift the Indians to a 6-1 victory over the Devil Rays on Saturday.

The loss was Tampa Bay's 100th of the season, giving the club its third season in franchise history with at least 100 losses.