A's shut out Indians; Carmona struggles
8/25/2010CLEVELAND - Gio Gonzalez extended the Oakland Athletics' strong streak of pitching with seven solid innings in a 5-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians Tuesday night.
Jeff Larish had a two-run homer and Coco Crisp a solo shot off Fausto Carmona (11-12) as Oakland snapped its streak without multiple homers at 26 games, longest since a team-record 31 games in 1978. Jack Cust hit a two-run homer off reliever Tony Sipp in the seventh to make it 5-0.
Gonzalez (11-8) gave up five hits over seven innings, becoming the 22nd consecutive Oakland starter to work at least six innings. The Athletics staff has allowed five runs or fewer in all those games, the longest streak by an AL team since the 1989 California Angels.
Oakland starters have a 2.01 ERA and limited opponents to a .198 batting average since July 31, but the Athletics are only 11-11 over that stretch.
Michael Wuertz worked the eighth inning and Jerry Blevins the ninth for Oakland as Cleveland was shut out for the 11th time, tying Seattle for most in the AL.
Oakland has four of the shutouts against the Indians, who have dropped 12 of their last 16 at home.
Gonzalez improved to 4-0 with a 0.89 ERA in four career starts against Cleveland. He worked out of jams in the second, fourth, and fifth as the Athletics opened a 10-game trip to Cleveland, Texas, and New York with only their third win in the last 11 road games. Oakland is 24-35 on the road overall.
The left-hander struck out Trevor Crowe with runners on second and third to end the second. Both runners had reached on errors. Cleveland got its first two hits and loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth before Crowe bounced into a forceout. Shelley Duncan took a called third strike with two on to end the fifth.
Carmona worked out of a bases-loaded threat too, getting No. 9 hitter Cliff Pennington on a fly to right to end the fourth.
The right-hander allowed four runs and nine hits over 62/3 innings as the latest Cleveland starter to struggle. The Indians' rotation is 1-13 over the last 17 games, during which Cleveland is 5-12.
Carmona lost his fourth straight start since winning in Boston on Aug. 2.
NOTE: Indians OF Michael Brantley missed his fourth game with a sprained left ankle. He took batting practice and could start today.