• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

After slow start, Indians aim for two straight wins

Apr 13, 2009 - 12:21 AM By Matt Becker Stats Senior Writer

Cleveland (1-5) at Kansas City (3-3), 8:10 p.m. EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- Before the start of the season, the Cleveland Indians were considered a sleeper to win the AL Central.

After one week, the only surprise has been how long it took to get their first win.

The Indians look to build off their first victory of the season when they open a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals Monday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Although Cleveland finished third in the division last season, some considered the club - led by Grady Sizemore, a healthy Travis Hafner and reigning AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee - a favorite to win the pedestrian Central in 2009.

The Indians have gotten off to a less than stellar start, though.

Cleveland defeated Toronto 8-4 on Sunday for its first victory of the season. Hafner and Mark DeRosa each hit a two-run homer as the Indians avoided opening 0-6 for the first time since 1914.

"It was a great team win and we certainly needed it," said DeRosa, who was 2-for-22 with nine strikeouts in his first five games with Cleveland.

Hafner is off to a strong start to 2009 after a right shoulder injury limited him to a .197 batting average, five homers and 24 RBIs in 57 games last season. He has homered in each of his last three games, driving in six runs in those contests.

Similar to Hafner, Monday's scheduled starter Fausto Carmona (0-1, 10.80 ERA) is trying to rebound from a disappointing 2008.

Carmona went 8-7 with a 5.44 ERA in 22 starts and missed two months with a left hip strain last season. The right-hander got off to a shaky start in 2009, allowing six runs, seven hits and two walks in five innings of an 8-5 loss to Texas on Wednesday.

"I don't really know what happened," said Carmona, who was 4-1 in the spring with a 2.67 ERA. "I just missed up on a couple of pitches."

Carmona didn't have much success against the Royals (3-3) last season, going 1-1 with a 8.74 ERA in two starts. He gave up 20 hits in 11 1-3 innings in those outings.

The Royals rallied for a 6-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep in their first home series of the season.

John Buck homered and drove in three runs for a Kansas City team that finally showed some signs of life on offense.

The Royals had combined for eight runs in their first five games and are batting a AL-worst .201 (40-for-199) on the season.

Although Kansas City has struggled to score runs, it plated just enough to make a winner out of Zack Greinke (1-0, 0.00) in his first start of the season.

Greinke, who takes the ball Monday, allowed three hits and struck out seven in six innings of Wednesday's 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

"I treated every batter like I didn't want him to get a hit on me, maybe was a little too fine," the right-hander said. "I didn't give in one pitch the whole game. If I threw a fastball, I wanted it to be right on the corner, knee high - or inside corner, waist to stomach high. I was trying to make the perfect pitch too much."

Greinke, who is 4-0 with a 1.07 ERA in six April starts since the start of last season, went 1-2 with a 3.71 ERA in three starts versus Cleveland a year ago.

The Royals dropped 10 of 18 to the Indians last season - the fifth straight season they lost the season series.