Guardians 4 - 1 Athletics
Final
  for this game

Indians kick off road trip in Oakland

May 3, 2011 - 2:52 PM

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(Sports Network) - They own the best record in baseball and their longest home winning streak in 15 years, yet many still don't believe the Cleveland Indians are for real. A couple of road victories against some American League West residents could change some minds.

The Indians visit the Oakland Athletics this evening in the opener of a three- game series at the Coliseum.

Cleveland comes to town following a perfect six-game homestand, pushing its home winning streak to 13 straight for the first time since April-May, 1996 and its overall record to an MLB-best 19-8. The Indians' current six-game winning streak is their second-longest of the season behind their eight-game run from April 3-11.

Doubters, though, will say that Cleveland is just 6-6 on the road, but it can change that with three games apiece in Oakland and Los Angeles. The Indians have just one victory in their last seven trips to visit the A's, while the Angels are currently tied atop the American League West standings.

The Indians head out west after besting Detroit, 5-4, on Sunday to record a three-game sweep. Matt LaPorta had a pair of doubles and drove in three runs, including one during a three-run eighth inning that put Cleveland up for good. Orlando Cabrera and Michael Brantley each had two hits and plated a run in the game as well.

"Those guys never give up," Indians manager Manny Acta said of his team. "We made some things happen today. Orlando Cabrera and Brantley had great hits for us today."

Starter Fausto Carmona will now try to make things happen when he draws the start tonight. The right-hander rebounded from a rough outing at Minnesota on April 23 to beat the Royals on Thursday. Carmona held Kansas City to a pair of runs on five hits over seven innings of an 8-2 triumph, moving to 2-3 with a 5.18 earned run average in six starts.

The 27-year-old is 3-5 with a 5.54 ERA in his career against Oakland.

While the Athletics play host to the streaking Indians on a bit of a roll themselves. They took three of four from the Texas Rangers, capping the set with yesterday's 5-4 victory in 10 innings, and have won six of their last nine overall.

Hideki Matsui connected on a walk-off homer in the 10th inning for Oakland on Monday, while Josh Willingham and Kurt Suzuki added solo homers.

"That's a great ball team over there," Suzuki said. "They got good pitching and everyone knows about their hitting. You have to try and contain their offense a little bit and you got to go out there and score runs to beat those guys."

With Dallas Braden still out with a left shoulder injury, Tyson Ross will make his third straight start for Oakland tonight. The right-hander is coming off a no-decision versus the Angels on Wednesday, but he gave up just four hits over seven scoreless innings in his team's eventual 2-1 loss.

"Tyson was pounding the zone and went after hitters," A's manager Bob Geren said. "That was the game plan and he did a terrific job. Both starters threw the ball well. They got a break to tie the game, we got a break to win the game."

The 24-year-old Ross is 1-2 with a 2.76 ERA in five games (two starts) this season and has never made a start against the Indians. However, he has faced them once in relief and threw two scoreless innings.

Oakland is 11-5 against Cleveland since the start of the 2009 season.






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