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Indians look to continue heavy hitting against Orioles

Sep 11, 2008 - 10:15 AM Cleveland (71-73) at Baltimore (64-80) 7:05 p.m. EDT

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Wins are hard to come by these days for the Baltimore Orioles. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians have found ways to somewhat salvage a rather disappointing season.

The Indians look to win their third straight series as they take on the lowly Orioles on Thursday.

After getting tagged with a painful 14-3 loss, Cleveland has outscored Baltimore, 13-2, in the last two games of the series.

The Orioles, who have won twice in the last 19 games, have a 5.10 team ERA and have surrendered an alarming 170 homers this season. In the last 20 games, 32 of those have been allowed - a major reason for the dismal 7.07 ERA in that span.

The Indians face Brian Bass (0-0, 10.80 ERA), who was acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Twins on Friday and will be making his first major league start.

The righthander, whose first appearance for Baltimore was in relief, will fill in for Jeremy Guthrie, a scratch with the flur.

Cleveland counters with Zach Jackson (0-2, 5.64), who was acquired in the July trade involving CC Sabathia. The 25-year-old lefthander is coming off a solid outing against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday in which he surrendered three runs and nine hits in seven innings.

Jackson made his Indians debut against the Orioles on August 14, when he gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings of a no-decision.