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Carmona cruises to seventh straight win as Indians roll

Jun 7, 2007 - 8:31 PM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- A year after squandering an opportunity, Fausto Carmona has taken advantage of another one.

Carmona won his seventh decision in a row as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals, 8-3, on Thursday.

The victory improved the Indians' home record to 21-7, the best mark in the majors. Cleveland is 9-0-1 in 10 series this season at Jacobs Field.

Carmona (7-1), who has not lost since his first start of the season, allowed one run and seven hits while matching a season high with five strikeouts in seven innings.

"I threw my changeup more along with my sinker," Carmona said through an interpreter. "My changeup was going good and I used it more than I had the whole season."

Last year, Carmona was inserted into the closer's role after the Indians traded Bob Wickman to the Atlanta Braves.

But the experiment failed miserably, as Carmona blew his first three save opportunities and lost five consecutive decisions from July 30 through August 23, 2006 with a 16.39 ERA as a reliever.

"I try not to think about (last year)," Carmona said. "I'm not thinking about how I am pitching. I just to want to concentrate on my next start."

This season has been a different story for Carmona, who was supposed to start the season at Class AAA Buffalo. But an injury to lefthander Cliff Lee opened up a spot for Carmona in the rotation and the righthander capitalized, going 2-1 with a 3.76 ERA.

Carmona was sent back to the minors when Lee was activated but never made it to Buffalo, as righthander Jake Westbrook was placed on the DL to leave a rotation spot open. Carmona hasn't looked back since then, going 5-0 in eight starts with a 2.76 ERA.

Now with Westbrook's return possibly a week away, the Indians have no choice but to keep Carmona on their roster.

"This young man has done a lot of work to be the pitcher that he is right now," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "I don't think anything happens by accident. He has a lot of confidence, and it shows in the results."

The only Royal to have any success off of Carmona was rookie Alex Gordon, who went 4-for-4 and was a homer short of the cycle.

"I just came in with the mindset to be aggressive and attack," said Gordon, whose four hits were a career high. "I know Carmona likes to throw the fastball early and I decided to go after it."

Gordon's leadoff triple in the seventh was the only time Kansas City had a runner at third the whole afternoon against Carmona. John Buck would drive home Gordon with a single.

The Indians broke open a 3-1 game with a five-run eighth inning Thursday. Josh Barfield hit a sacrifice fly and Grady Sizemore had a two-out, two-run double to make it 6-1.

Casey Blake followed Sizemore's double with a two-run homer, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games and capping off the scoring.

"I fouled off some tough pitches," Blake said. "I was happy he throw a heater up high that I didn't chase.

"It's nice to be on the streak, but I don't care about that. I just want us to win."

Cleveland jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning. After a one-out walk to Jason Michaels, Barfield hit an RBI double to left-center field but was thrown out trying to advance to third.

Franklin Gutierrez followed with a home run to right on Odalis Perez's 2-0 pitch, his second blast of the season.

"I didn't think the ball was out," Gutierrez said. "I knew I hit it hard, I thought it might hit the top of the wall, so I started running."

Michaels extended Cleveland's lead to 3-0 with a solo home run in the sixth off of Perez (3-6), ending the lefthander's day.

Perez, who didn't get the run support he did in his last start against Tampa Bay, allowed the three runs and seven hits, walking three and striking out four in 5 1/3 frames.

"It wasn't a bad outing," Perez said. "When you have a problem with a strike zone, it's tough to go deep in the games, especially against that lineup."

Kansas City added a pair of runs in the ninth thanks to Joey Gathright, who blooped a two-run hit with two outs to make it 8-3.