Rays trounce Indians

Longoria and Escobar hit home runs, lead Hellickson, Rays over Indians 11-3

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona gets in the last word after being ejected by home plate umpire Bill Welke in the fifth inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria is greeted in the dugout after a two-run home run off Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Matt Langwell in the eighth inning.

CLEVELAND — Evan Longoria and Yunel Escobar hit two-run homers today, leading the Tampa Bay Rays to an 11-3 win over the Cleveland Indians.

James Loney added a two-run double for the Rays and Sam Fuld wound up with a triple when his drive bounced off a ball boy. Tampa Bay bounced back a day after its six-game winning streak ended.

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona gets in the last word after being ejected by home plate umpire Bill Welke in the fifth inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Indians manager Terry Francona was ejected in the fifth inning by plate umpire Bill Welke for arguing a strike call with Nick Swisher batting. It was his first ejection as Cleveland’s manager.

Jeremy Hellickson (3-2) allowed three runs in five innings.

Zach McAllister (4-5) lasted only 4 1-3 innings — his shortest start of the season — and gave up five runs.

Escobar’s homer in the sixth pushed the Rays’ lead to 7-3.

Longoria drove in three runs. He homered to cap a four-run eighth and connected off Matt Langwell, who was facing his first hitter in his major league debut.

Loney’s double in the first put Tampa Bay ahead. Longoria added an RBI single in the third and Jose Lobaton’s infield hit made it 4-0 in the fourth.

The Indians scored three times with two outs in the fourth. Yan Gomes’ RBI double and Mike Aviles’ two-run single cut the lead to 4-3.

Francona was tossed with the Indians trailing 5-3 after Welke called a strike to Swisher on a 1-0 pitch. Francona, thinking the pitch was low and outside, yelled from the dugout and was quickly ejected. He came on the field and argued with Welke, holding his hands a couple of feet apart, apparently to show how far he thought the pitch was out of the strike zone.

Francona fired his gum to the ground before leaving the field and yelled again at Welke when he returned to the dugout. Francona also argued with Welke about a call on the bases in a game that started Friday night and lasted into early Saturday.

Fuld led off the Rays’ fourth with a hit down the line in right field. The ball bounced off a ball boy, who attempted to get out of the way as Fuld raced to third. Francona talked it over with first base umpire Adrian Johnson, saying Fuld should have been sent back to second. The ruling, however was that the ball boy was in play and didn’t intentionally interfere with the ball, and the triple stood.

Second baseman Jason Kipnis fielded Lobaton’s ground ball up the middle but had no play as Fuld scored.

NOTES: LHP Matt Moore, tied for the AL lead with eight wins, will start Tuesday when the Rays open a three-game series in Detroit. .... RHP Alex Cobb, who missed his last start because of a cut finger, will start Wednesday for the Rays. ... The Indians begin a nine-game road trip Monday against the Yankees. Cleveland RHP Justin Masterson (8-3) faces New York LHP Andy Pettitte (4-3) in the opener of the three-game series. ... Indians SS Asdrubal Cabrera got the day off. ... Cleveland OF Drew Stubbs is in an 0-for-16 slump. ... Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry threw out the ceremonial first pitch, then autographed the ball for Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr., who served as his catcher. Perry pitched for the Indians from 1972-75.