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Lee tosses complete game as Indians beat Devil Rays

Oct 1, 2006 - 8:07 PM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Cliff Lee ended an up-and-down campaign on a positive note.

Lee recorded his first complete game of the season and Jhonny Peralta drove in two runs as the Cleveland Indians posted a 6-3 triumph over the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the season finale for both teams.

Lee (14-11) surrendered three runs on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. The lefthander finished the season winning four of his last six starts, allowing more than three earned runs just once during the stretch.

"If I stay healthy and make every start, it's a success to me," Lee said. "There are some things I could have done better, but I think I kept the team in games and gave us a chance to win." His only other complete game was July 18, 2005 against against Kansas City, a game that was called after five innings due to rain.

"I gave up the leadoff homer, but I settled in after that," Lee said. "They were swinging the bats, so I was being aggressive and going after them."

Peralta delivered a two-run double in a three-run first inning and Casey Blake lofted a sacrifice fly two frames later off Tampa Bay rookie starter Jason Hammel (0-6) for a 4-0 lead.

The Indians (78-84) went 31-20 since August 9.

"We finished up strong and that's a good sign," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "It's something to build on for next season. We played much better the last two months."

Joe Inglett and Andy Marte each stroked consecutive run-scoring doubles in the sixth to chase Hammel, who gave up six runs and nine hits with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames.

Damon Hollins collected his 15th homer in the first and Greg Norton launched his career-high 17th - a two-run blast - in the eighth for the Devil Rays (61-101), who fell to 4-5 in season finales.

"It's unbelievable," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "If I could give you a reason, I would have done it months ago. The record is so absurd. We're two completely different teams (on the road)."