honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 1:19 p.m., Saturday, April 5, 2008

Baseball: Eveland, A's roll by Indians, 6-1

By JOSH DUBOW
Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Oakland starter Dana Eveland works against the Cleveland Indians in the first inning.

BEN MARGOT | Associated Press

spacer spacer

OAKLAND, Calif. — Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia got roughed up in another disappointing homecoming and Dana Eveland allowed one run in seven innings to win in his Oakland Athletics debut, beating the Indians 6-1 today.

Jack Cust hit a two-run double in a three-run first inning and Mark Ellis added a solo homer against Sabathia (0-1), a native of nearby Vallejo who fell to 1-4 with a 7.12 ERA in eight career starts in Oakland. Sabathia's lone win at the Coliseum came in July 2003, one of the few places he hasn't had success in his eight seasons in the majors.

Sabathia, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, gave up four runs, six hits, and four walks in 5 1-3 innings and has a 7.59 ERA after two starts this season. He allowed three runs in the opening inning as Cleveland lost for the 18th time in its last 24 games in Oakland.

Eveland, one of the players acquired from Arizona in the Dan Haren trade, did just fine in his first appearance in front of his new fans by winning for the first time in seven career starts.

Eveland (1-0) had been 0-3 with a 9.33 ERA as a starter for Milwaukee and Arizona, never lasting longer than 5 2-3 innings or allowing fewer than four runs. He bettered both of those marks against the Indians, backing up the strong spring training that earned him a spot in Oakland's rotation.

After allowing doubles to Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner that plated a run in the first inning, Eveland settled down and gave up just four additional hits in his final six frames. He tied a career high with seven strikeouts and walked only one, getting a warm ovation when he walked off the mound following the seventh inning.

Daric Barton, who had three hits, started it with a one-out triple and scored on Emil Brown's single. Then with runners on first and second and two outs, Cust hit a ball down the left field line that drove in two runs. Cust has driven in 21 runs in 12 career games against Cleveland.

Ellis hit a solo homer in the fifth, snapping a career-worst 0-for-18 stretch since homering in his first at-bat of the season against Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka in Japan. Ellis added a two-run single in the eighth off Rafael Betancourt.