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Indians start up road trip in San Francisco

Jun 24, 2011 - 3:09 PM (Sports Network) - The Cleveland Indians hope to maintain their lead atop the American League Central Division when they kick off a nine-game road trip tonight with the first of three straight games against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

Cleveland is just one game ahead of Detroit for division bragging rights and will also visit Arizona and Cincinnati on the upcoming trek. It has won four of its last six games and salvaged the finale of a three-game series versus Colorado with Wednesday's 4-3 win at Progressive Field.

Travis Hafner hit a two-run homer and Grady Sizemore knocked in a run for the Indians, who saw starting pitcher Josh Tomlin post his ninth win of the season (9-4). Tomlin was reached for three runs over 6 1/3 innings, while Vinnie Pestano, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez went the rest of the way to preserve the win. Perez tallied his 18th save with two strikeouts in the ninth inning.

"Tomlin was very good again, 70 percent of his pitches were strikes," said Cleveland manager Manny Acta.

Acta is counting on Carlos Carrasco to be good again when he toes the rubber Friday night for the Tribe. Carrasco has won three straight and six of his last seven starts, and held Pittsburgh to one run over 6 1/3 frames of a 5-1 triumph last Saturday. He was coming off back-to-back scoreless outings and ran his 2011 mark to 7-3 in 13 starts with a 3.87 ERA.

The right-hander has been dominant on the road, going 4-0 in seven outings as the guest, and has never faced the Giants.

San Francisco won the last two tests of a three-game series versus the Minnesota Twins by the Bay and is coming off Thursday's 2-1 victory in the series finale.

Miguel Tejada went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Cody Ross knocked in the other run for the Giants, who had dropped five in a row before winning two straight. Tim Lincecum got back into the win column with seven shutout innings and 12 strikeouts, while closer Brian Wilson managed to collect his 21st save despite surrendering a run in the ninth inning.

"I wasn't worried about what would happen when I throw my pitches," Lincecum said after his first win since May 27. "Early in the game, when I was commanding my pitches in the zone, I just opened up my mind to allow myself to become that much more confident."

Giants center fielder Andres Torres could be back in the starting lineup after sitting out the last two games. He is batting only .231 this season, but owns 12 homers.

The Giants are a half-game behind Arizona for the NL West lead and will hand the ball to lefty Jonathan Sanchez this evening. Sanchez is 0-2 in his last three starts and recently took the mound in last Saturday's 4-2 loss at Oakland, as he yielded four runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Sanchez has given up at least two earned runs in five straight outings and owns a 4-5 record in 15 starts with a 3.71 ERA. The southpaw defeated the Indians the only time he faced them in a 3-2 road victory on June 24, 2008 and allowed just one run through 7 2/3 innings with eight K's.

San Francisco won two of three encounters with Cleveland from June 24-26, 2008, while the Indians recorded a three-game sweep as the visitor back in the 2005 campaign.