Santana, Schmantana

The Cleveland Indians once again made Johan Santana their personal rented mule, this time by beating him savagely during a 4-run first inning and then hanging on for a 4-3 victory.

The Indians came out swinging. Sizemore singled, and then Asbrdrubal "Pearl" Cabrera, making his first start at shortstop in place of Jhonny Peralta, smashed one off the railing in left field to stake the Indians to a 2-0 lead. After a Hafner groundout, Victor Martinez hit one into the left field bleachers for a 3-0 lead. After Garko was retired, Gutierrez doubled, followed by a Lofton single for a 4-0 lead. That turned out to be all the offense the Tribe would need.

Sabathia clearly did not have his best stuff, but he had enough to give the team 6 full innings, and he left with a 4-2 lead. Jensen Lewis made an impressive 1-2-3 appearance in the 7th, and Betancourt gave up a run in the 8th after giving up a triple down the right field line that Gutierrez almost caught.

Joe Knows Closing came on for yet another tension-filled ninth. After giving up a leadoff single to the pestky Jason Tyner, he got the next batter to pop a bunt foul high enough that Victor Martinez could dive under it for the first out. The next batter smashed one right to Ryan Garko, who stepped on first and threw it to second, where Pearl tagged the runner to complete the unusual 3-6 double play to end the game.

Mojo Watch
Cleveland Indians:

This team right now has Full Elvis after sweeping the Twins, winning 9 of their last 11 and beating Santana for the fourth time this season. To put that last into perspective, no team had ever beaten Santana more than twice in a season until this year's Cleveland Indians. This puts the Indians 4.5 games over the Motor City Kitties, who lost again to the Royals, and 8.5 games over the Twinkies.

The Mariners come in tonight for a makeup snow date. Aaron Laffey vs. Horatio Ramirez. The Mariners have lost 5 straight, including a thorough beatdown at home from the Angels of Somewhere in Southern California in their most recent series.