• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Indians shake off layoff, beat Angels

Apr 11, 2007 - 4:42 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Cleveland Indians showed no rust following a three-day layoff.

C.C. Sabathia worked out of trouble and Kelly Shoppach hit his first homer of the season as the Indians earned a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Milwaukee.

Cleveland was forced to cancel its entire four-game series against Seattle over the weekend due to snow storms. With 10 inches of snow still on the field on Monday, Major League Baseball moved the three-game series against the Angels to Miller Park in Milwaukee, where a surprisingly large crowd of 19,031 turned out.

"There's nothing like playing at Jacobs Field in front of our fans obviously, there's nothing that can replace that," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "But the fans were into the game. They were excited to be out here. It's obviously a very unusual situation, very unique, and I think everybody recognizes that."

Working on seven days' rest, Sabathia (2-0) surrendered three runs - one earned - and 10 hits in seven innings. The 26-year-old lefthander walked two and struck out seven.

"From the long layoff, I was very happy with the way (Sabathia) threw the ball," Wedge said. "The pitches he threw late in the game and how he handled things was really big for us because Anaheim is going to keep coming. That's the way they play."

Sabathia said the unfamiliar surroundings offered no hardship.

"It wasn't that weird; just playing a home game somewhere else," he said. "I think a lot of guys dealt with it yesterday and just came here prepared to win the series."

The Indians got to Angels starter Ervin Santana (1-1) in the second inning when Shoppach hit a two-run blast to deep right-center field. They added single runs in the third and fourth before chasing Santana with three runs in the fifth.

"I just made a couple of mistakes and that's how you pay," Santana said, referring to the homers by Shoppach and Casey Blake, who hit a solo shot in the third inning. "You have to keep the ball down and locate your fastball first. I tried to do that but it didn't work."

Anaheim's 24-year-old righthander allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings, walking four and striking out two to take the loss.

"Ervin was on the edge the whole night," Angels skipper Mike Scioscia said. "He looked like he was going to settle down and at least get us to a certain point of the ballgame. His command was the issue tonight. That's about as wild as we've seen him."

Andy Marte also drove in his first three runs of the season with a pair of doubles for Cleveland.

Joe Borowski earned his second save of the season despite allowing a run in the ninth. Shoppach ended the game by throwing out pinch runner Erick Aybar attempting to steal second.

"The coolest play for me was with two outs in the ninth, I'm like the closer," Shoppach said. "Instead of a big strikeout, I threw a guy out to end the game. It's a pretty good feeling."

Shoppach was getting the start for Victor Martinez, who was unavailable with a quadricep strain.

"I learned so much last year, being my first full year, about slowing down the game," Shoppach said. "I was pretty relaxed today and composed."