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Sabathia goes for league-leading 13th win in series opener

Jul 19, 2007 - 1:39 PM Cleveland (55-39) at Texas (41-53) 8:35 pm EDT

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) - Hoping to brush aside two consecutive poor starts, C.C. Sabathia and the Cleveland Indians begin a four-game road series with the Texas Rangers on Thursday.

Sabathia (12-4, 3.78 ERA), who is tied for John Lackey and Josh Beckett for the major league lead in wins, is winless in his last two outings. He has surrendered 13 runs and 21 hits over his last 11 frames.

In his last start - a 6-5 loss to the Royals on Saturday - the lefthander surrendered six runs and 11 hits over seven innings. The loss marked the first time since September 16-21 that Sabathia lost two straight decisions as well as two straight starts.

However, he does have a good history against the Rangers, though, as he carries a 6-2 record in 10 lifetime starts against them.

Kameron Loe (5-7, 5.49) will try to recover from his worst start in over a month as he faces the Indians for the second time this season. He surrendered five runs - three earned - and five hits in just 2 2/3 innings on Saturday in a 9-5 loss to the Angels.

Prior to that disastrous outing, the righthander had gone 4-0 in five starts, tossing at least six frames in each outing. Loe will need to reverse his fortunes against Cleveland if he hopes to get back on track, however, as he is 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA in two relief appearances and one career start against them.