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Cabrera baffles Indians as Orioles win second straight

May 6, 2007 - 3:48 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Daniel Cabrera channeled his emotions into some positive results.

Cabrera tossed seven outstanding innings and Ramon Hernandez matched a season high with four RBI as the Baltimore Orioles coasted Saturday to an 8-2 triumph over the Cleveland Indians.

It was the second straight victory for the Orioles, who snapped a four-game skid Friday with a 3-2 win in 10 innings.

"Last night we saw some good things from our offense and we came out swinging the bats," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "You knew we weren't going to stay down forever. It was a big win for us."

Perhaps the only member of the Orioles not carrying momentum into this contest was Cabrera (2-3), who had lost his previous two outings while yielding 11 walks over that span.

Cabrera's most recent loss came Monday at Detroit, where he allowed five runs and a season-high six walks in five innings. The outing was marred by an ugly incident with Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield, who was plunked in the third inning and went after Cabrera two innings later during a benches-clearing argument.

Cabrera clearly let his emotions get away from him in the contest. The 25-year-old screamed wildly at Sheffield moments before yielding a monster home run to the Detroit designated hitter.

But Cabrera had a much better mind-set Saturday, surrendering one run and three hits with four walks and six strikeouts to win for the first time since April 9. The hard-throwing righthander threw 69-of-113 pitches for strikes to improve to 2-0 lifetime vs. the Indians.

"Today we did everything to win" Cabrera said. "Any time you have run support, you're going to see a different game and you become more comfortable out there."

Cabrera also benefited from plenty of run support from the Orioles, who pounded out 13 hits. Jay Payton paced the attack with three hits while Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora added two each.

Hernandez gave the Orioles a quick 3-0 advantage in the first inning with his first homer of the season.

"I'm just trying stay relaxed" Hernandez said. "This team has a lot of great hitters, and I know we're going to be able to hit."

After Roberts led off with a single and Tejada walked two batters later, Hernandez deposited Jeremy Sowers' 2-2 offering over the wall in left field to give Baltimore the lead for good.

The Orioles doubled their advantage in the following frame to chase Sowers (0-2), who yielded six runs, five hits and three walks in a career-low two innings.

Payton ripped a two-run single to plate Roberts and Kevin Millar, and Hernandez lofted a sacrifice fly two batters later to make it 6-0.

Tejada plated Roberts with a sacrifice fly in the fourth and Millar added a run-scoring forceout in the fifth to cap the scoring for Baltimore. Millar singled in the seventh to record his 1,000th career hit.

Victor Martinez was the lone bright spot for the Indians, going 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. The All-Star catcher got Cleveland on the board in the sixth with his third homer of the season, a solo shot to right field.

"Obviously you take full responsibility for your performance, but I'm not going to take anything away from (Erik) Bedard and Cabrera," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "They were real good the last couple nights."

Rookie Mike Rouse added two hits for the Indians, who lost consecutive games for the first time since being swept in a three-game series against the New York Yankees on April 17-19.