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Indians look for sixth straight win against Mariners

Aug 30, 2007 - 1:43 PM Seattle (73-58) at Cleveland (75-58), 7:05 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - The Cleveland Indians are creating some space atop the American League Central standings.

Victor Martinez hopes he can help propel the Indians to their sixth consecutive victory when they host the Seattle Mariners on Thursday in a makeup game stemming back to the season-opening series in April that saw all four games snowed out at Jacobs Field.

Martinez, who is riding an eight-game hitting streak, belted a solo homer in Cleveland's 4-3 triumph over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.

The Indians sit 4 1/2 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers (71-62) in the AL Central.

Aaron Laffey (2-1, 4.76 ERA) will take the mound for just the fourth time in his major-league career for the Indians. The 22-year-old lefthander pitched six innings, yielding two runs and eight hits with four strikeouts in Saturday's 9-4 triumph over the Kansas City Royals.

The Mariners will counter with Horacio Ramirez (8-4, 6.67), who for the first time all year did not allow an earned run in his last outing. The lefthander gave up three unearned runs and four hits with three walks over 5 2/3 frames in a 5-3 setback to the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

Seattle has lost five straight and fallen into a tie with the New York Yankees (74-59) atop the wild card standings.