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Cleveland RHP Carmona looks to beat Santana again

May 17, 2007 - 2:13 PM Minnesota (18-21) at Cleveland (24-13) 12:05 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Fausto Carmona is determined to stay in the majors. Beating one of the best pitchers in baseball again will certainly help his case.

Carmona seeks his fifth straight win on Thursday when the Cleveland Indians aim for a three-game sweep of the struggling Minnesota Twins.

Despite the fact that he has been a fill-in for some of Cleveland injured starters, Carmona (4-1, 3.12 ERA) has already outdueled reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.

Originally in the rotation to fill in for Cliff Lee, Carmona was sent down on May 1 despite pitching well. However, he was brought right back up six days later after Jake Westbrook went on the disabled list with a strained left abdominal muscle.

In between the shuttle to Class AAA Buffalo, Carmona topped Santana on April 24, yielding two runs and six hits in 7 2/3 innings of a 5-3 win at Minnesota. Santana was not his usual dominant self, giving up four runs and six hits in seven innings.

Carmona has gone on to allow four earned runs in his last 22 1/3 frames, including three runs in seven innings of a 6-3 victory at the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

The righthander will now see if he can get the better of Santana once again. It appears as if he will get plenty of support, as the Indians have rolled over the Twins in the first two games of the series by a combined score of 22-8.

On Wednesday, Cleveland posted a 7-1 victory behind ace C.C. Sabathia, who yielded a run and five hits in eight innings. With the win, the Indians improved their major league-best home record to 13-3 with their seventh straight triumph at Jacobs Field.

Combined with his setback against Carmona, Santana (4-3, 3.35) has won just once once in his last four starts.

The lefthander gave up two runs and six hits in six innings in his last outing, a 7-3 setback to the Detroit Tigers last Friday.

In 25 career appearances, Santana is 7-3 with a 3.21 ERA against Cleveland, including 4-2 at Jacobs Field.

Minnesota has lost 10 of its 13 games in May.