Ryan Garko doubled home the go-ahead run in a three-run seventh inning to help the Cleveland Indians rally past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-4 on Thursday night.
Grady Sizemore and Andy Marte hit two-run homers and Paul Byrd (10-9) won for the first time in five September starts for Cleveland.
The Devil Rays, coming off their largest shutout win in team history, 11-0 Wednesday night in Boston, failed once again to win consecutive road games for the first time since June 16-17 at Philadelphia.
Tampa Bay dropped to 3-28 on the road since the all-star break. They must win all three remaining games in Cleveland to avoid becoming the first team in history to lose 99 games while posting a winning home record.
Sizemore hit the first pitch from reliever Jon Switzer for his 28th homer, a two-run shot in the seventh inning that tied it at 4.
Ruddy Lugo (2-4) then walked Jason Michaels, who scored on Garko's double into the left-field corner. It gave the rookie first baseman 21 RBIs in his last 20 games.
Matt Miller pitched a scoreless eighth and Rafael Betancourt worked out of a bases loaded jam to earn his third save.
He gave up consecutive singles to Ben Zobrist and Rocco Baldelli and intentionally walked Greg Norton with one out to load the bases. The right-hander then struck out Ty Wigginton and Jorge Cantu to end the threat.
Byrd gave up four runs and eight hits over seven innings to improve to 2-3 in 12 starts since July 25. The right-hander, who signed a two-year, US$14.25 million contract as a free agent last December, is only 1-3 with a 6.00 ERA in September.
Norton hit a two-run homer, his 16th, with one out in the Tampa Bay first. Cantu added an RBI double later in the inning for a 3-0 lead.
In the third, Norton singled and scored on Wigginton's triple off the left-field wall to make it 4-0.
Joe Inglett singled and scored on Marte's fifth homer to get Cleveland within 4-2 in the fifth against Devil Rays starter J.P. Howell.
Howell extended his scoreless streak to 11 innings before yielding the homer to Marte. The left-hander allowed two runs and six hits over five innings.
Notes: The Devil Rays have led in 120 games this year, but have lost an AL-record 59 times after holding a lead. The NL record is 66 blown-lead losses by the 1998 Florida Marlins. ... Sizemore has scored 133 runs, tying Hall of Famer Tris Speaker (1933) for fifth-most in Indians history in a season. ... Cantu is 26-for-109 (.239) with runners in scoring position this season, after batting .325 in that situation in 2005.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
