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Indians outlast Orioles in slugfest

Aug 12, 2008 - 3:50 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge had a feeling that Monday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles would be a back-and-forth affair. But he had no idea what he was about to witness.

Cleveland had five players with two RBI as the Indians went on to defeat the Orioles, 13-8, in a wild game.

Nick Markakis had three hits and drove in four runs for the Orioles in the first game between the two teams since May 7, 2007 - a span of 461 days.

"You felt early on that the game could go back and forth, but not to that extreme," Wedge said. "It was a weird evening."

Wedge had just watched Baltimore score five runs in the seventh inning to take an 8-7 advantage, but the Indians answered right back with three runs in their half of the inning.

Shin-Soo Choo started the rally with a lead off double off of Rocky Cherry and went to third on a single by Ryan Garko. Cleveland then nearly ran themselves out of the inning when pinch hitter Kelly Shoppach grounded softly to third and Choo got caught in a rundown.

But Choo managed to beat catcher Ramon Hernandez back to third base as Baltimore botched the rundown.

Pinch hitter Jamey Carroll followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 8-8.

Asdrubal Cabrera, who homered in the second inning, followed with what appeared to be a routine grounder to third base, but Melvin Mora didn't get a good jump as the ball glanced off his glove and ended up in shallow left-center field, allowing Cabrera to reach second with an RBI double.

"Obviously, there were probably lapses in concentration," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "I'm not making excuses for them. I think the guys have shown a tremendous ability to stay focused, but tonight there were some things that should have been handled a little better than they were."

Grady Sizemore capped the inning with an RBI groundout to give Cleveland a 10-8 lead.

"We had a lot of guys do different things to help us win tonight," Wedge said.

The Indians broke open the game with three more runs in the eighth on a solo home run by Ben Francisco and a two-run homer by Andy Gonzalez.

"Choo got the momentum back for us with that double," said Garko, who was one of the Indians with two RBI. "It was a good team effort."

Edward Mujica (1-1) picked up the win despite blowing the 7-3 lead.

Nick Markakis, who had three hits and four RBI, tied the game with a bases-clearing triple off Mujica to tie the game at 7-7. Baltimore then took its first lead of the game a batter later on Mora's sac fly.

Indians starter Fausto Carmona allowed seven runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings. He retired the first batter he faced to start the seventh, but then allowed the next four batters to reach safely and left with the bases loaded.

"You see (Carmona) lock it in for a few innings, but he is still having trouble executing and being consistent," Wedge said.

Cleveland jumped all over Orioles starter Dennis Sarfate, who was making his third major league start. The Indians tagged Sarfate for seven runs - six earned - on five hits in four innings.