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Sabathia strikes out 10 in win over Padres

Jun 15, 2008 - 9:46 PM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- It was a great pitching matchup on paper, but to C.C. Sabathia, that's all it was.

Sabathia pitched eight strong innings and the Cleveland Indians defeated the San Diego Padres, 7-3, on Sunday.

Sabathia (5-8) outpitched Greg Maddux in a battle of Cy Young Award winners as Cleveland won the rubber game of a three-game interleague series.

"I told somebody before the game I was more worried about facing Adrian Gonzalez than Maddux," Sabathia said. "It was great for the matchup, but I was more focused on the Padres hitters."

Ben Francisco hit a three-run homer and Grady Sizemore also homered for the Indians, who have won five of their last seven games.

Sabathia, who won the 2007 American League Cy Young, allowed three runs and six hits with one walk. The burly lefthander also struck out 10 to move into fifth place on the Indians' all-time strikeout leaderboard.

It was the 14th career time that the 27-year-old reached double digits in strikeouts.

Sabathia allowed all of his runs in the fourth, but finished strong as he retired the last 14 batters he faced.

"I was upset (after the runs), but I told myself no more," Sabathia said.

"C.C. was good all day," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "He was just as strong in the eighth as he was early on."

Sabathia's latest outing continued a strong recent showing at home, as the southpaw won for the fourth time in his last five starts at Progressive Field. In that span, he has posted a 1.13 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 40 innings.

"(Sabathia) is really good," Maddux said. "He's too good of a pitcher to give him extra runs. I like watching him pitch."

Cleveland took a 4-3 lead in the fourth on Jhonny Peralta's RBI groundout. Shin-Soo Choo led off the inning with a double to left-center off of Maddux. After a groundout advanced Choo to third, Peralta hit a soft grounder back to the mound, leaving Maddux (3-5) with only a play to first.

Franklin Gutierrez's RBI single extended the Indians' lead to 5-3 in the sixth. Maddux got two quick outs, but then gave up three consecutive singles.

"They made the two hard hit balls count (off of Maddux)," Padres manager Bud Black said. "He gave us a chance and himself a chance to win the game."

Cleveland broke open the game in the seventh with two runs off reliever Cla Meredith, with Sizemore crushing a leadoff shot for his ninth home run in his last 16 games and Peralta added an RBI single.

"I'm not trying to hit home runs," Sizemore said. "I'm putting some good swings on the ball and putting good at-bats together."

Maddux, who is a four-time Cy Young Award winner, yielded five runs - two earned - and eight hits in six innings, but his throwing error in the third costing him three runs.

Gutierrez led off the inning with a routine grounder back to the mound, but Maddux threw the ball wide of the first baseman Gonzalez. Maddux then hit Jamey Carroll with two outs to compound matters.

"I shouldn't have thrown it," Maddux said. "I didn't have it and (Gutierrez) was running hard. Give him credit for running hard. If he didn't I would have been able to double pump and make a good throw."

Francisco greeted Maddux by crushing his first pitch over the left-field wall for his fourth home run of the season.

"He was trying to get a changeup up," Francisco said. "It was pretty special. I grew up watching him on TV like everybody else."