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Hafner's late blast sends Indians past Angels

Apr 9, 2008 - 5:57 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- After Torii Hunter broke the hearts of the Cleveland Indians on Monday, Travis Hafner decided not to wait long to return the favor to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Travis Hafner hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the ninth inning, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Tuesday.

In the series opener on Monday, Cleveland scored three runs in the top of the ninth off Anaheim's bullpen to take a 4-2 lead that looked to end the Angels' streak of 161 consecutive wins after leading after eight innings.

However, Hunter belted a walk-off grand slam to give Anaheim a 6-4 win, extending the streak by one and making the Indians' late comeback a moot point.

But Anaheim tempted fate one too many times and, as a result, saw their streak end at 162 games.

"Baseball is a weird game sometimes," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We were on the flip side of what happened yesterday in tonight's game."

"It was an impressive streak, and just wish we could have kept it going," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Justin Speier (0-1), who had come on in the eighth inning, returned to start the ninth in part because reliever Scot Shields just got back from the disabled list because of shoulder and tightness in his forearm while closer Francisco Rodriguez is limited due to injuries to both his ankles.

"He's (Hafner) a tough hitter in situations like that, and I just have to tip my hat and be ready next time I get the call to close out a game," Speier said.

Speier retired the first two batters of the ninth before walking Asdrubal Cabrera. Hafner didn't wait to punish Speier for the mistake, belting the reliever's first pitch well over the fence in right for his second home run of the season.

"I was just looking for a pitch to hit and I hit it hard, fortunately it went out," Hafner said. "I was hoping for another chance to drive runs in after letting a couple chances slip away earlier in the game."

Hafner's blast was sweet vindication for Jake Westbrook (1-1), who was in line to take the loss after Vladimir Guerrero hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth to give the Angels a 3-2 lead. The righthander tossed his 12th career complete game, allowing three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts.

"I thought it was going to be one of those games where I pitched good enough to win but just ended up on the losing side," Westbrook said. "I wanted to keep my pitch count down so I could go deep in the game."

Guerrero had two hits and scored for the Angels, who fell to 2-4 at home this season.

"We thought that Vlad's home run was all that we may have needed, but that club (the Indians) has a dangerous lineup from top to bottom," Scioscia said.