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Indians hope for some more home cooking versus M's

May 14, 2011 - 2:28 PM (Sports Network) - The Cleveland Indians will attempt to improve an already stellar 15-4 home record today in the second of three weekend games versus the Seattle Mariners.

Cleveland owns the most victories in the American League (24) and sits atop the American League Central by four games over second-place Detroit. The Tribe continued to roll in Friday's opener, as Travis Hafner's two-out, two-run homer capped a three-run bottom of the ninth, lifting Cleveland to a 5-4 win.

Brandon League (0-4) served up a leadoff double to Michael Brantley which sailed over the head of Mariners left fielder Carlos Peguero. Brantley scored when Asdrubal Cabrera doubled again over Peguero's head, then a groundout moved Cabrera to third.

A Carlos Santana grounder failed to produce a tying run, but Hafner ended the game with a blast over the wall in center. It made a winner of Tony Sipp (2-0), who turned in 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

"He's a guy who has a really good sinker, so I was looking for something up," Hafner said of his approach during the game's final at-bat. "The first pitch was down, then the next pitch was up a little bit, and the last one was right where I wanted it."

Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo each homered for the Indians, who snapped a two- game skid. Starter Fausto Carmona allowed six hits and four runs over his 6 2/3-inning outing.

Cleveland posted its ninth victory in its final at-bat.

Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer for the struggling Mariners, who have lost six in a row. Doug Fister worked eight full frames, charged with four hits and two runs with six strikeouts.

Getting the call for the Indians this afternoon will be rookie Alex White, who owns a 1-0 record with a 3.75 ERA through his first two career starts. The Indians' first-round pick in 2009, White earned his first MLB win last Saturday, permitting three runs on seven hits in six innings.

"He's a great competitor," Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. "He's got a tremendous heartbeat out there for a guy who just got called up, a guy who's just two years out of college."

This will be his first-ever appearance against the Mariners.

Seattle, meanwhile, will rely on Erik Bedard, who is starting to come around after a rough start. The lefty owns a 1.89 ERA over his last three starts, but is still just 1-4 on the season with a 4.78 ERA. On Sunday, Bedard lasted only five innings against the White Sox due to a high pitch count, but he struck out a season-high nine batters.

"I think it's appropriate," Bedard said. "I couldn't go as far as I wanted to. Sometimes games are like that. I threw a lot of strikes, they fouled a lot of balls off and battled and got my pitch count up. That's what you're supposed to do."

Bedard is 2-2 lifetime against Cleveland with a 4.44 ERA. However, his worst outing of the year came at the hands of the Indians, who battered him for six runs and 10 hits in only four innings back on April 10.

Cleveland swept a three-game series in the Emerald City from April 8-10 and has won seven of the last nine matchups between the two ballclubs.