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Stewart, Hill help Blue Jays salvage split

May 13, 2008 - 3:30 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - For a long time, it looked like the Toronto Blue Jays would never score again.

Toronto hadn't scored a run in 31 innings and had already hit into an unassisted triple play, but Shannon Stewart drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning with a sacrifice fly and Aaron Hill followed with a two-run single as the Blue Jays salvaged a split of a doubleheader with a 3-0 triumph over the Cleveland Indians in the nightcap on Monday.

Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera turned the 14th unassisted triple play in major league history in the fifth inning for the Indians, who defeated the Blue Jays by the same 3-0 score in the first game.

But Toronto overcame the adversity to snap their eight-game losing streak in Cleveland.

"We were due, overdue, I guess," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.

In the 10th inning, pinch hitter Matt Stairs and Lyle Overbay led off with consecutive singles off reliever Rafael Betancourt. Gregg Zaun advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt and after an intentional walk, Stewart's sacrifice fly to center snapped the Blue Jays' longest scoreless drought since May 1981.

Hill added insurance with a two-run single to center field off Betancourt (1-2).

"It was nice to get one with nothing going our way," Hill said. "It's always nice to get a win on a get-away day."

B.J. Ryan (1-0) worked a perfect ninth and Scott Downs worked a scoreless 10th for his fourth save in five chances.

"We finally put a big inning together when we needed it," Gibbons said.

Cliff Lee and Shaun Marcum locked horns in a classic pitcher's duel, but neither factored in the decision.

Lee, who lowered his league-leading ERA to 0.67, scattered seven hits over nine scoreless innings. The lefthander received plenty of help from his defense, including the triple play.

"I located my fastball and the defense made some plays behind (me), but you have to score runs to win," Lee said.

Marcum yielded only two hits over eight scoreless innings. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second and worked around a leadoff double in the fourth.

"We didn't do anything offensively," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "I don't want to take anything away from the starting pitcher, but I put it on us. Our approach was as poor, if not the poorest, I have seen all year. There is no excuse for it. We gave away at-bats all night long."

In the fifth, Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro began the inning with singles, Lyle Overbay lined out to Cabrera near second base.

Cabrera alertly stepped on second base to double off Mench before tagging Scutaro, who was running toward the bag, to complete the triple play.

"As soon as the runners took off, I knew I had a chance," Cabrera said through an interpreter. "I knew it was a triple-play ball."

"I was trying to speed up the game," Overbay joked. "It was a bad hit-and-run. It's never a smart move to hit a line drive on a hit-and-run. Only bad things can happen."

With the Blue Jays struggling to score runs, Overbay was not surprised that it happened.

"It didn't surprise me with the way we have been going lately," he said. "It was unbelievable, but I get to go down in history. They can't take that away from me."

Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was the last player to record an unassisted triple play, doing so in the seventh inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves on April 29, 2007.

It was the third unassisted triple play in Indians' history. Ironically, the first two in major league annals were recorded by the club as shortstop Neal Ball (1909) and second baseman Bill Wambsganss (1920) accomplished the feat.