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Indians bats stay hot in frigid Chicago

Apr 4, 2007 - 11:20 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Cold? Snow? Forget it. Apparently nothing can cool off the red-hot bats of Grady Sizemore and the Cleveland Indians.

Sizemore's second homer in as many games - a two-run shot in the seventh inning - gave the Indians an 8-7 victory over the Chicago White Sox and their best start in nine years.

On a wintry day at U.S. Cellular Field more suited for snowballs than baseball, the Indians banged out 13 hits, including eight for extra bases. They hit for the cycle in consecutive at-bats in the second inning.

"Usually you anticipate, on cold days, it's going to be low scoring," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "But of course, it was the exact opposite. It was cold. One of the colder days we've had here."

The outburst came two days after Sizemore triggered a 12-run outburst by hitting the second pitch of the season opener for a homer. Cleveland hung 20 runs in two games on Chicago, which has one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

"We got some good swings today, and we got some runs to back it up," Sizemore said. "This is a good way to start the first series. It was definitely windy and cold, but when your adrenaline is going, (the weather) doesn't really play a factor."

The Indians erased a 3-0 deficit and blew a 5-3 lead before taking the lead for good in the seventh. With two out, Andy Marte drew a walk from Mike MacDougal. Sizemore greeted Matt Thornton (0-1) by belting his first pitch nearly 400 feet over the right field fence, giving Cleveland an 8-7 lead.

"I was trying to get a good swing on the ball early, and we were trying to get a rally going," Sizemore said.

The blast made a winner of Aaron Fultz (1-0), who retired a batter in the sixth and seventh. Three more relievers got the last eight outs, with Joe Borowski working a very shaky ninth for his first save.

Left fielder Jason Michaels ended the game by making a running, sliding catch on Joe Crede's drive to the warning track with two runners aboard.

"I just wanted to make that catch, Michaels said. "On the field, the wind was blowing one way, and if it was a pop fly it was blowing a different way. If you looked from the dugout, you'd see the snow flurries blowing two different ways.

The Indians are 2-0 for the first time since 1998, when they won their first six games en route to the American League Central Division title.

Borowski was one of a handful of players who did not wear long-sleeved undershirts beneath their jerseys despite the blustery conditions, which saw temperatures dip into the upper 20s. Winds whipped at 15 miles per hour and snow swirled throughout.

Indians starter Jake Westbrook was in a 3-0 hole before retiring a batter. He walked Scott Podsednik and Darin Erstad before Jim Thome crushed a homer.

"It was a frustrating day, in the sense that I felt like I was locating my pitches, Westbrook said. "I made some mistakes that cost a lot of runs."

"With the weather like that, you never know what you're going to get," Thome said. "I've seen it where good pitching stands out in that kind of weather, but today it was good offense. I played in a World Series game in '97, (and that was) very, very cold. But when you're out there and your adrenaline is going, you try to eliminate the thought of it being cold."

But Cleveland roughed up Jon Garland in the second. David Dellucci doubled, Jhonny Peralta tripled, Josh Barfield singled and Marte homered for a 4-3 lead.

In the fourth, Trot Nixon doubled and scored on one of Victor Martinez's four hits to make it 5-3. Martinez has seven hits in the first two games.

Chicago tied it on Tadahito Iguchi's two-run homer in the fourth and took a 7-5 lead on Crede's two-run single in the fifth. But Cleveland 's bullpen silenced Chicago thereafter.

Westbrook allowed seven runs, seven hits and three walks in five innings. Garland gave up five runs, seven hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings.

"I've been waiting for our pitching to step up," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It's not easy bringing relievers in the second or fifth inning. If we keep doing that, it's going to be a long season."

Martinez doubled home a run in the sixth, bringing the Indians within 7-6.