Yes, Robinson Cano buries the Indians with a grand slam in the seventh inning off Tony Sipp in the Yankees' 8-2 win at New York, but Tribe starting pitcher Fausto Carmona continues to show encouraging signs.
View full sizeIndians relief pitcher Tony Sipp watches the game get away from him in the seventh inning as the Yankees' Robinson Cano rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam, giving New York an 8-2 lead.
NEW YORK -- If the score stayed the way it was when Fausto Carmona ended the sixth inning Friday night, the learning experience would have been easier to grasp. But the whole Yankees thing seemed to close in on the Indians when Carmona left the game.
There were more than 40,000 people in the seats at new Yankee Stadium. There was a clip of Mick Jagger playing Yankees scoreboard games between innings. The place vibrated with the kind of energy that felt like a living thing.
View full sizeThe positive of an 8-2 loss for the Indians is pitcher Fausto Carmona, who stayed cool and got out of trouble in the sixth inning.
In short, it was everything Indians baseball isn't. Yes, that included Robinson Cano's seventh-inning grand slam that overshadowed another step forward in the remaking of Carmona and helped the Yankees steamroll the Indians, 8-2, in the Bronx.
Charlie Nagy, the old Indians right-hander, calls Yankee Stadium the biggest stage in baseball. He's right.
Which made Carmona's sixth inning all the more impressive. The Indians trailed, 2-1, but that was before the Yankees first three batters reached base on Mark Teixeira's walk and singles by Cano and Nick Swisher.
Carmona (4-3, 3.69 ERA) forced home a run by walking Juan Miranda and gave up a sacrifice fly to Brett Gardner to make it 4-1. If this was 2008 or 2009, Carmona would have been done. He might not have even made it that far, but Friday night he didn't look into the dugout for help or hang his head in self pity.
What he did was strike out Ramiro Pena in an 11-pitch at-bat and induce Chad Moeller to hit into a force play to end the inning with the game still within reach.
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"I thought Fausto battled for us real well," said manager Manny Acta. "He really impressed me by the way he worked himself out of that inning. He gave us a chance for six innings."
Acta wasn't here last year, but he'd talked to enough people to know the chances of Carmona getting through an inning like the sixth last season were slim.
"All I heard from the rumors were at times like this last year that he'd crumble and things would get worse," Acta said. "He was able to slow the game down a little and just get back in control and get out of that inning."
Russell Branyan cut the Yankees lead in half, 4-2, with a leadoff homer off Phil Hughes (6-1, 2.70) in the seventh, but the Indians would get no closer.
Tony Sipp started the seventh with 15 1/3 straight scoreless innings, but the Yankees rolled him for a four spot on Cano's slam. Derek Jeter opened the inning by beating out an infield single behind second, Curtis Granderson doubled and Teixeira walked to load the bases. Cano hit Sipp's first pitch into the second deck in right field.
The four earned runs were more runs than Sipp had allowed all season. The left-hander entered the seventh having allowed three earned runs in 19 1/3 innings.
"Anything can happen in baseball on any day," Sipp said. "I was just fortunate enough to have a run like I did. Games like this bring you back to reality."
Swisher hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the second to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead against Carmona. It should have only been a solo homer, but umpire C.B. Bucknor called Cano safe on a leadoff single that should have been an out. Replays showed Jason Donald's throw from short clearly beat him to the bag.
It was not a good night for Bucknor, who called Donald out at first in the seventh on what appeared to be an infield single.
The Indians' Jhonny Peralta made it 2-1 with a two-out double off Hughes in the fourth.
Hughes started the game with five straight strikeouts. But the play of the game belonged to Indians center fielder Trevor Crowe, who stole an extra-base hit from Miranda in the fourth with a diving, back-to-the-play catch on the warning track in center.
The Indians have lost nine of their past 11 games.
"We don't keep count here," said Acta, when asked if he felt the season was slipping away from his team. "That's your job. We just show up and play hard every day. We still have over 100 games to play."
To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter: phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158.