• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Sabathia aims to halt Indians' two-game skid

May 6, 2007 - 2:47 PM Cleveland (17-10) at Baltimore (14-16) 1:35 pm EDT

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- After losing two straight games for only the second time this season, the Cleveland Indians will lean on their ace to rekindle their winning ways.

The Indians will look to avoid losing three consecutive games at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles when the teams continue their four-game set on Sunday.

C.C. Sabathia (4-0, 3.38 ERA), who is off to the best start of his seven-year career, will attempt to join Boston's Josh Beckett as the only American League pitchers with at least five wins.

To do that, Sabathia will try to tame the Orioles, who have won the first two games of the series after losing nine of their previous 10. The 26-year-old lefthander is 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA in eight starts against Baltimore and has allowed just three runs in his last four outings against the Orioles.

In his last start, Sabathia gave up three first-inning homers before regrouping after a 30-minute rain delay to yield just one hit over the next five frames of the Indians' 12-4 win over Toronto on Tuesday. Cleveland is 6-0 this season when Sabathia starts.

The Orioles will counter with Brian Burres (0-0, 1.35 ERA), who will make his first career start filling in for the injured Adam Loewen, who was placed on the disabled list on Friday with a stress fracture in his left elbow.

The lefthanded Burres has made six relief appearances this season, yielding just two runs and striking out 15 in 13 1/3 innings. He did not allow a hit and struck out six in four scoreless innings at Jacobs Field last Sunday in his only appearance against the Indians.

Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run shot and had four RBI and Miguel Tejada went 2-for-3 for the Orioles, who posted an 8-2 victory on Saturday. It was the first time in 17 games that Baltimore had scored more than seven runs.