Blue Jays thumped
CLEVELAND - Casey Blake and Ben Francisco hit two-run doubles in a six-run seventh inning to help C.C. Sabathia and the Cleveland Indians defeat Roy Halladay and the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 in a duel of Cy Young Award winners on Friday night.
Blue Jays centre-fielder Vernon Wells jammed his left wrist while making a diving catch and left in the sixth inning as Toronto lost for the 13th time in its last 14 games in Cleveland.
Sabathia (2-5) struck out nine over seven innings.
The reigning AL Cy Young winner gave up six hits, walked two and won for the first time in five decisions at home this season.
Halladay (3-5) lost for the fourth time in five starts and fell to 5-1 in his career against Cleveland. The 2003 winner fanned nine and had a 1-0 lead until the seventh, when Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko each singled. With Asdrubal Cabrera trying to put down a sacrifice bunt, Halladay walked the .183 hitter on four pitches to load the bases.
Blake then lined an 0-1 pitch off the wall in left-centre to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead. Jesse Carlson relieved and got Grady Sizemore to pop out, then intentionally walked Franklin Gutierrez.
When left-hander Jeremy Accardo came on to face David Dellucci, Indians manager Eric Wedge sent up right-hander Ben Francisco to pinch hit. Francisco, recalled from the minors Tuesday, lined a double off the wall in left to make it 4-1.
Gutierrez scored on a wild pitch and Victor Martinez hit a sacrifice fly to score Francisco for a 6-1 lead.
Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the fifth. Rod Barajas hit a leadoff double and was bunted to third by Brad Wilkerson. Former Indians farmhand Marco Scutaro then lined an RBI single to right-centre.
Barajas continued to torment Sabathia. The .239 career hitter went 1-for-3 against the left-hander and is 7-for-17 (.412) with three homers against him overall.
The Blue Jays failed to score more than five runs for the 22nd time in their last 23 games despite adding veteran outfielder Kevin Mench and Wilkerson. Mench, acquired from Texas for cash, went 0-for-2 with a walk. He also struck out, hit into a double-play and was pulled for pinch-hitter Matt Stairs in the eighth. Wilkerson, signed as a free agent after being released by Seattle, went 1-for-3.
Wells, leading the Blue Jays in homers (five) and RBIs (24) walked off after robbing Gutierrez of a hit.
Fredericton's Stairs was retired in his lone at-bat.
Rays 2 Angels 0
At St. Petersburg, James Shields pitched a one-hitter and Evan Longoria's two-run, ninth-inning homer snapped a scoreless tie and gave the Tampa Bay Rays a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.
Shields (4-2) rebounded from the second-shortest outing of his career to post his second shutout in his past three starts.
The 26-year-old right-hander limited the Angels to Brandon Wood's one-out single in the third and retired the last 17 batters he faced after hitting Erick Aybar with a pitch in the fourth.
Angels starter Jon Garland allowed no runs and four hits in eight innings.
He walked three and struck out two before being replaced by Justin Speier (0-2), who gave up a leadoff single to B.J. Upton in the ninth.
Cubs 3 Ariz. 1
At Chicago, Ted Lilly gave up another homer to Chris Young, but still led the Cubs over Arizona in the first meeting between the teams since the Diamondbacks' first-round sweep in last year's playoffs.
Young homered off Lilly in Game 2 last October in Phoenix during Arizona's 8-4 win, prompting Lilly to slam his glove on the pitcher's mound in frustration.
This time Lilly surrendered a first-inning solo homer to Young, then gave up just two hits over the next six innings. Lilly (3-4) struck out 10 against the team with the best record in the majors and drove in the tying run with a fifth-inning single.
Dan Haren (4-2) yielded two runs and five hits in seven innings for Arizona.
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