• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Blake, Sabathia help Indians thump Royals

Apr 23, 2008 - 5:32 AM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- C.C. Sabathia rebounded in a big way, throwing six scoreless innings to get his first win of the season as the Cleveland Indians hammered the Kansas City Royals, 15-1, on Tuesday night.

In losing three straight starts, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner had compiled a 15.64 ERA, but he worked his longest outing of the season while Casey Blake paced the Indians with a grand slam and six RBI.

Sabathia (1-3) struck out 11 and walked two while limiting the Royals - the American League's lowest-scoring team - to just four singles.

"I was trying to stay tall and throw the ball down," Sabathia said. "I did a good job of that tonight, and with my cutter that made all the difference. I did a better job of throwing inside to righthanders and lefthanders both."

"C.C. was back to his old self," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "The way he finished pitches off was the difference tonight. He was commanding his fastball. He threw the ball very consistently and you could tell he was in control the way he used both sides of the plate, and worked up and down however he wanted."

The 27-year-old lefthander recorded the first six outs on strikeouts and collected his 12th career game of at least 10 strikeouts as Kansas City advanced just two runners past first base against Sabathia.

Cleveland's ace won for the first time since his last start of 2007, which also came against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

"I've felt all year like I did last year," Sabathia said. "The way I was pitching I was wishing something was wrong, but that's not the case. The delivery is there. The pitches are there. I just wasn't executing. I just needed to finish my delivery, finish off at-bats and finish off innings."

"When you win the Cy Young you've got a big target on your back," Indians first baseman Ryan Garko said. "C.C.'s our ace and it's fun to see him pitch like that. His slider looked the best I've seen, maybe better than last year. It was a good start for him."

Cleveland jumped ahead in the second inning on Asdrubal Cabrera's sacrifice fly and added a pair of runs in the third on David Dellucci's RBI single and Travis Hafner's sacrifice fly.

Leading 3-0, the Indians quickly loaded the bases in the fourth inning before Blake hit a 2-0 pitch into the seats down the left field line for his fourth career grand slam.

"It was a 2-0 fastball and I was looking for something in the middle of the plate," Blake said. "I got myself into hitter's counts and a lot of things went my way."

One out later, Dellucci sent Gil Meche (1-3) to the showers with his second homer of the season - a 402-foot solo shot to right center.

"This is definitely a game where I got beat up," Meche said. "I'm not doing a lot of things right. I'm definitely pressing. I feel like I'm pitching too intense. I'm trying to do too much with one pitch from the first pitch to the last one I'm out there."

Blake added RBI doubles in the fifth and seventh innings, finishing the day 4-for-4 and one RBI shy of his career best.

"Individually and collectively, everyone needed a night like this," Blake said. "It does wonders for your confidence and that's what it's all about. We had a lot of guys swinging the bats. We had a good one tonight, in all areas of the game."

Jhonny Peralta led off the seventh inning with his fourth home run. Peralta and Franklin Gutierrez each had three of Cleveland's season-high 17 hits. Gutierrez's bases-clearing, eighth-inning double capped the Indians' best offensive performance of the year.

"Everybody was doing it tonight," Peralta said. "It feels good. The home run was the best at-bat I've had this year. Today's a good day because a lot of guys feel more comfortable now."

"It was a great night," Wedge said. "We saw some strong at-bats out there. You never expect to have that kind of production, but if you put yourself in position to have good at-bats you're going to have games like that. The results are going to be there if you consistently have a good approach. We saw some strong at-bats out there."

Cleveland entered the game ranked last in the AL in hitting at .235, but pounded Meche for nine hits and eight runs. The Royals righthander walked one and struck out two over 3 1/3 innings.

"(Meche) is not locating pitches to the ability that he needs to or the ability level he has in the past," Kansas City manager Trey Hillman said. "When you've got starting pitchers that don't locate as well as their history tells you that they should, when it happens repeatedly, all year, there is some worry there. But I think Gil will get on track."

"I haven't been myself," Meche said. "The numbers pretty much show you that. Mentally, this game will get to you. I'm at a position where I need to rethink things."

Kansas City has lost five straight while being outscored, 46-12.

"Today is a loss," Hillman said. "It's a bad one, but it doesn't go down as five losses because we lost 15-to-1. It's embarrassing. It hurts. Obviously after the sweep in Oakland, coming home you want to get off to a better start."