CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians put an emphatic end
to the Minnesota Twins postseason hopes and served notice to
their next opponent.
Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore and Ronnie Belliard each homered
in the first two innings to back another solid performance by
Cliff Lee as the Indians won their seventh straight contest,
12-4, over the Twins.
By completing the series sweep, Cleveland moved 8 1/2 games
ahead of Minnesota, effectively ending any hopes it had of
getting back into the wild card chase. With the Twins out of
the way, the Indians hope to do the same to the Oakland
Athletics, who come to Jacobs Field for three games starting
Monday.
Cleveland leads the race for the wild card by 1 1/2 games over
New York and 2 1/2 over Oakland. However, Cleveland trails
American League Central-leading Chicago by 5 1/2 games - it
closest deficit since April 20 - and have six games remaining
with the division leaders.
Martinez highlighted a four-run first off Carlos Silva (9-8)
with a two-run homer. After Silva left with a knee injury,
Sizemore drilled a two-run shot and Belliard a three-run blast
off Joe Mays to open a 10-0 lead.
Martinez, who went 2-for-3, leads the major leagues in batting
in the second half at .379 with 10 doubles, 10 homers and 37
RBIs in 52 games
Because of the early outburst, Lee (16-4) cruised to his seventh
consecutive win, allowing two runs and four hits in six innings
as Cleveland improved to 21-8 in his 29 starts.
Coco Crisp had two singles and two doubles and Sizemore added a
triple and single for the Indians, who pounded out 17 hits and
improved to a major league-best 28-10 since July 31. Crisp is
17-for-32 during an eight-game hitting streak.
Jacque Jones hit his 20th home run of the season for the Twins,
who have lost five of six and 12 of 18.