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Cabrera, Indians kick off second half against Orioles

Jul 14, 2011 - 2:36 PM (Sports Network) - Indians All-Star second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera enjoyed a productive first half of the season and hopes to continue that trend when Cleveland opens the second portion tonight with the first of four straight matchups with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Cabrera earned a starting nod on the AL roster with a .293 average, 14 homers, 51 RBI and 55 runs scored. He went 0-for-2 with a strikeout in a 5-1 loss to the National League on Tuesday. The Indians hope Cabrera can get them back into the win column after they entered the break riding a three-game slide. Indians reliever Chris Perez also took part in the Mid-Summer Classic and threw a scoreless inning of relief.

The Tribe suffered a 7-1 loss on Sunday to the Blue Jays at Progressive Field, as Carlos Carrasco was drilled for five runs and seven hits in three innings. Jack Hannahan knocked in the club's only run, while Carlos Santana and Grady Sizemore each had two hits for Cleveland, which lost three straight to the Jays after winning the opener of the four-game set and is a half-game behind idle Detroit for the AL Central lead.

"My last two games, I've left a couple of pitches a little bit up," said Carrasco. "Every time when I miss, I've paid the price."

Cleveland will visit Minnesota for four games on this eight-game road trip and is slated to send Justin Masterson to the mound Thursday. Masterson is 2-1 with a stingy 0.38 ERA in his last four games (3 starts) and pitched a scoreless inning of relief in last Saturday's 5-4 loss to Toronto. He defeated the Yankees on July 6 with eight scoreless frames of a 5-3 win.

Masterson is 7-6 with a 2.64 ERA in 19 games, 18 of which have been starts, this season and defeated Baltimore back on April 15 in an 8-2 victory in Cleveland. He allowed one run over seven innings, improving to 3-3 with a 5.20 ERA in nine career games (5 starts) against the Orioles.

Baltimore went 1-9 on a 10-game road trip before the break and has lost seven straight and 12 of 13 games. In an 8-6 loss at Boston on Sunday in the finale of a heated four-game series from Fenway Park, Derrek Lee homered and Adam Jones recorded two hits and an RBI for the Orioles.

Mitch Atkins did not figure into the decision after he gave up six runs and seven hits in only 1 2/3 innings. Jeremy Guthrie, who will start tonight's game, was dealt the loss for giving up one run over 3 1/3 frames of relief. Four ejections highlighted the contest and O's manager Buck Showalter wasn't too pleased.

"I know the umpires are trying, I just wish they would have issued the warnings before the game started, because [John] Lackey should have been thrown out of the game [Saturday] for hitting [Derrek] Lee. That was intentional as it gets. [It will] be interesting to see if they hand down any punishment for Lackey."

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters made the All-Star team and went 0-for-1.

Showalter's club, which has lost eight straight and 20 of the past 25 road games, is kicking off a 10-game homestand tonight versus the Indians, Red Sox and Angels, and will hand Guthrie the ball Thursday. In his last start July 6 in a 13-5 loss at Texas, Guthrie yielded six runs and nine hits over five innings. He fell to 3-12 on the season in a relief role on Sunday to go along with a 4.18 ERA over 20 games (18 starts).

Guthrie has lost three straight trips to the mound and lost at Cleveland on April 16 in an 8-3 setback. He allowed six runs and 10 hits in five innings that day and is 2-1 with a 5.91 ERA in five career games (3 starts) against the Indians.

Cleveland swept a three-game home series versus Baltimore from April 15-17 and has won 13 of the previous 19 meetings between the teams.