Tribe snaps 6-game losing skid

Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Vinnie Pestano throws out Texas Rangers' Michael Young at first base in the ninth inning of a baseball game. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

CLEVELAND -- Jeanmar Gomez and three Cleveland relievers combined to beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 as the Indians snapped a six-game losing streak Saturday night.

The win was Cleveland's sixth in 34 games since July 27.

Texas entered with a four-game lead in the AL West over Oakland and lost for just the fifth time in 16 games.

Gomez worked 5⅔ innings. Joe Smith, Esmil Rogers, and Vinnie Pestano finished. Pestano allowed two hits over 1⅓ innings for his first save.

Pestano has been Chris Perez's setup man for two years, but Cleveland's All-Star closer never warmed up.

Cleveland scored four runs in the first inning off Scott Feldman (6-11). The Indians are 42-24 when scoring four or more runs.

Carlos Santana had a two-run single before Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan each had RBI groundouts in the first inning.

David Murphy hit his 11th homer leading off the third for the Rangers' first hit. He walked to open the fifth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mitch Moreland to make it 4-2.

Adrian Beltre's 26th homer with two outs in the sixth made it 4-3 and finished Gomez.

Gomez allowed three runs and four hits in his first start since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus on Wednesday. The right-hander opened the season in Cleveland's rotation and was 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in four April starts before struggling and being sent to Columbus on June 24.

Feldman settled down and pitched shutout ball for his last five innings, but he fell to 0-5 in five starts since Aug. 5.

Elvis Andrus hit safely against Cleveland for the 28th straight game, setting a Rangers record for a hitting streak against one team. Ivan Rodriguez had hit in 27 straight against Tampa Bay in 1998-2000.

Andrus extended the streak in his final at-bat in strange fashion. He took a big cut at a pitch from Rogers and sent a weak dribbler that hugged the third base line. It rolled foul at one point, weaved back into fair territory, and Andrus laughed as he reached first base when the ball stopped at the third base bag.

Gomez started in place of Roberto Hernandez, out with a sprained right ankle. Hernandez left a start Monday because of the injury and tweaked it during fielding practice on Thursday. He will wear a protective boot for at least a week.