Music: {allcanada} Jays' long-ball rally comes up short

Sunday, August 1, 2010

{allcanada} Jays' long-ball rally comes up short

TORONTO -- After dealing away most of their veteran talent at the trade deadline, youth will have to carry the Cleveland Indians the rest of the way.

The plan worked to perfection Sunday afternoon.

Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Donald hit home runs and rookie Jeanmar Gomez pitched five innings as Cleveland defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4.

The Indians, who lost the opener of the three-game series on Friday, came back to win the next two.

"We played really good ball these last couple of games," said the 24-year-old Cabrera. "We want to play like that the whole rest of the season."

Aaron Hill, Yunel Escobar and Jose Bautista homered for the Blue Jays on Sunday before a crowd of 21,797 at Rogers Centre.

The Indians dealt away veteran outfielder Austin Kearns on Friday before parting with starter Jake Westbrook and Kerry Wood on Saturday.

"Cleveland's kind of a little bit of a disadvantage, having traded those players away and we didn't take advantage of it at all," said Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. "They got rid of a lot of guys and sent a couple of rookies out and beat us."

Gomez (2-0) allowed five hits and two runs in five innings in his second major league start. He defeated the Detroit Tigers on July 18 in his debut and was returned to triple-A Columbus. He was recalled for Sunday's start after Westbrook was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Chris Perez pitched around a leadoff single from Travis Snider in the ninth to earn his 12th save of the season.

Josh Tomlin started Saturday's game on three days rest because of the Westbrook deal. He didn't earn the decision but still helped the Indians to a 2-1 victory by going 5 1-3 innings.

"(Tomlin) pitched a good game against the Yankees (picking up the win on July 27 in his major-league debut) and this kid today Gomez had pretty good movement on the ball," Gaston said. "Both those kids looked pretty good, it will be interesting to see how they turn out."

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays had another sub-par effort from Jesse Litsch (1-5). He was yanked after loading the bases with none out in the fifth. Brian Tallet came in and walked Carlos Santana to force in a run before inducing a double-play grounder to limit the damage to two runs.

"I want to get out of that inning, those are my runs," Litsch said. "We've got a great bullpen but as a starter you never want to get taken out of a game.

"For me personally I want a chance to get out of that inning. I didn't have my best stuff today that was no secret but I'm always going to battle, that's me in a nutshell."

Litsch pitched himself into a two-run hole just two batters into the game, walking leadoff hitter Trevor Crowe and giving up Cabrera's second homer of the season.

Litsch's earned-run average is 5.79 in nine starts since returning from reconstructive elbow surgery in June of 2009.

"I still don't see the velocity he had before," Gaston said. "His control is not as good as it was before."

Hill led off the second inning with his 15th homer of the season, the 13th consecutive home game in which Toronto has gone deep.

The Blue Jays tied the game in the third when Hill's single scored Vernon Wells after he doubled with two out.

After Cleveland took the lead in the fifth, Donald hit his third homer of the season with two out in the sixth to give the Indians a 5-2 lead.

Escobar got one back with his third homer of the season off left-hander Tony Sipp with two out in the seventh. Frank Herrmann replaced Sipp but Bautista greeted Cleveland's new pitcher with a homer of his own as the Jays went back-to-back to make it 5-4, but would get no closer.

Notes: Bautista was named the Blue Jays Honda Player of the Month for July by the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He batted .347 with 11 home runs and 29 runs batted in for the month ... The Blue Jays open a three-game series in New York against the Yankees on Monday night with Brandon Morrow (7-6, 4.62 earned-run average) to start against former Blue Jay A.J. Burnett (9-8, 4.52 ERA) ... Travis Snider started in left field Sunday, his first start since being called up Friday from double-A where he had been assigned after leaving the disabled list July 17. He was put on the DL with a sprained wrist on May 15.