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Sabathia, Peralta overpower Blue Jays

May 2, 2007 - 6:07 AM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Not too many pitchers respond well to any kind of delay. C.C. Sabathia seemed to welcome it.

Sabathia struck out nine and Jhonny Peralta had a career-high five RBI as the Cleveland Indians downed the Toronto Blue Jays, 12-4, in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday.

Sabathia (4-0) settled down after a rough first inning, helped in part by a 30-minute rain delay in the bottom of the first.

"(Toronto) put some good swings on the ball," Sabathia said. "The rain delay helped me calm down and collect my thoughts and make adjustments."

The lefthander had surrendered Alex Rios' second leadoff homer and back-to-back shots to Troy Glaus and Aaron Hill to give the Blue Jays an early 3-0 lead. After the game was restarted, Sabathia yielded just one hit on his way to retiring 16 of the last 17 batters he faced.

"After the rain delay, Sabathia kicked it in and was overpowering," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He's one of the best in the league. He picked up some on his velocity and threw a real good changeup. If he can do that, he can shut you down."

The two-time All-Star allowed three runs and four hits and walked none to win his first four decisions for the first time in his career. Cliff Lee was the last pitcher to accomplish the feat three seasons ago for Cleveland, which has won eight of their last nine games and improved to 6-0 in contests started by Sabathia.

"I don't care about my record, I just want to pitch in the playoffs," Sabathia said. "For us to do that, we have to win almost every time I take the mound." "C.C. is our horse," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "He's our guy. We want to get the ball to him as much as possible."

Following a two-run blast from Travis Hafner to narrow Toronto's advantage to 3-2, Peralta belted a two-run double to deep center to give Cleveland a 4-3 lead. With the Indians holding that same 4-3 advantage in the fifth, Peralta hit a two-run homer in his next at-bat that staked the Indians to a 6-3 lead.

"I am concentrating more with guys on base," Peralta said.

"(Peralta) had a big night for us," Wedge said. "He's swinging the bat good. He really stepped up for us."

Hafner's shot was his first at Jacobs Field this season and, after starting the season hitting just .143 (5-for-35) at home, the lefthanded slugger has three hits in his last seven at-bats.

While Sabathia seemed to gather himself after the break, Blue Jays starter A.J. Burnett (2-2) was pounded for seven runs after the game was resumed. Despite tallying a season high in strikeouts with seven, the righthander gave up eight hits and four walks over five innings in his worst outing since his season debut against the Tigers on April 4.

"It wasn't the rain delay," Burnett said. "It was my inconsistency in making quality pitches. I'd get ahead, but I'd be a hair off here and a hair off there. The home runs came on pitches I didn't want to make."

Rios had two RBI and Glaus had two hits for Toronto.