Sabathia pitches Indians into first place

Indians manager Eric Wedge is certain he's never before seen what his starting staff is accomplishing.

C.C. Sabathia pitched a 5-hitter and struck out 11 in the host Indians' major-league-leading seventh shutout, a 2-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night that moved Cleveland into the AL Central lead.

The Indians, who took a half-game lead over Minnesota, had not been alone in first this year and hadn't even held a share of the lead since the opening week.

Cleveland starters have pitched 43½ consecutive scoreless innings since Friday.

"It's pretty special stuff what they're putting together right now," Wedge said. "They're going well beyond the call of duty right now. We just want them to give us a chance to win."

The consecutive scoreless streak is the longest by an Indians starting staff since they tossed 47 scoreless innings in August 1948. It's the longest by a major-league team in one season since a 54-inning streak by Baltimore's starters from Sept. 1-7, 1974, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Cleveland became the first team to pitch 5 shutouts in an eight-game span since Oakland from July 12-19, 2002, according to Elias.

"It feels really good," Sabathia said. "Everyone is working hard. Everyone wants to be that guy each night."

Sabathia (3-5) tied his season high for strikeouts, walked two and won consecutive starts for the first time this season. He has a 1.49 ERA over his past 5 starts.

Yankees 2, Rays 1: Robinson Cano went 4-for-4 and drove in a run to back the pitching of Mike Mussina, helping New York end Tampa Bay's six-game winning streak. Cano, who tied a career high with 4 hits, had a RBI single in the fourth.

Mussina (6-3) allowed 1 run and 5 hits over 6½ innings to win his fifth consecutive decision.

Orioles 6, Red Sox 3: Jay Payton hit his fourth career grand slam to back a gritty pitching effort by Daniel Cabrera, and host Baltimore rallied to beat Boston.

Solo homers by Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell, and a defensive gem by Manny Ramirez weren't enough to prevent the Red Sox from losing their fourth straight. It was the third consecutive game in which Boston blew a 3-run lead.

Mariners 4, Rangers 3 (12): Miguel Cairo had a two-out RBI single in the 12th inning, and Seattle beat host Texas to avoid a sweep and keep the Rangers from reaching .500.

Wladimir Balentien led off the 12th with a single off Franklyn German (1-2), and Yuniesky Betancourt sacrificed. Balentien moved to third on a deep flyout by Ichiro Suzuki, who went 0-for-6 and ended a 13-game hitting streak. Cairo then singled up the middle.

Blue Jays 6, Twins 5: Matt Stairs hit a grand slam, and Roy Halladay (4-5) rebounded from a shaky start to help Toronto beat host Minnesota.

Halladay has been the victim of poor run support all season, getting only 3.14 runs per outing entering Wednesday. Stairs' slam in the first inning gave the right-hander a 4-0 advantage.

Royals 2, Tigers 0: Luke Hochevar pitched 6 strong innings, and Joey Gathright drove in the only runs, helping host Kansas City beat Detroit and hand Justin Verlander (1-7) his AL-leading seventh loss.

Hochevar (3-2), the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, limited the Tigers to 4 singles while striking out five and walking three. He lowered his earned-run average to 3.94 in 5 starts since being called up from Triple-A Omaha on April 20.

National League

Nationals 5, Mets 3: Ryan Zimmerman homered and Tim Redding pitched 2-hit ball for 6 innings, sending Washington to a victory over host New York.

Jesus Flores hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the seventh off Aaron Heilman, who was booed on and off the mound by the Shea Stadium crowd. Washington added 3 more runs in the inning, sticking Claudio Vargas with a tough-luck loss in his Mets debut.

Braves 8, Phillies 6: Tom Glavine pitched 5¿ effective innings to earn his first win for visiting Atlanta since beating Philadelphia on Sept. 19, 2002.

Chipper Jones, Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson each hit solo homers, and Brian McCann drove in 3 runs to support Glavine (1-1).

Reds 7, Marlins 6 (10): The Cincinnati Reds blew a 6-run lead in the ninth inning, but Paul Janish singled home the tiebreaking run in only his second big-league at-bat in the 10th, lifting host Cincinnati past Florida.

Renyel Pinto (1-2) walked two with two outs before Janish, who arrived from the minors earlier in the day, singled to right field to end it.

Dodgers 6, Brewers 4: Juan Pierre hit a go-ahead, 2-run double in the ninth inning, and Los Angeles overcame a 3-run deficit to beat host Milwaukee and stop a season-high, six-game losing streak.

Los Angeles had been 0-18 when trailing after eight innings. Milwaukee and its beleagured bullpen have lost 10 games in which it led at some point.

Cardinals 5, Pirates 1: Todd Wellemeyer (4-1) allowed 2 hits into the eighth inning for St. Louis, and Albert Pujols had 2 hits, reaching base for the 41st straight game to start the season, in a win over visiting Pittsburgh.

Wellemeyer allowed Luis Rivas' single with one out in the first, then gave up only 3 walks before Jose Bautista singled to start the eighth. That ended an outing that matched his career best since moving into the rotation last year.