Associated Press
CLEVELAND ó Carl Pavano threw strikes and his Cleveland Indians teammates struck quickly at the plate.
Pavano won his third straight start and the Indians scored in the first inning for the first time this month as they defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-4 on Monday night to snap a four-game losing streak.
“It finally felt like a real baseball game,” said Cleveland third baseman Mark DeRosa. “Any win right now is big.”
Pavano (3-3) allowed four runs and 10 hits over 61/3 innings in his first appearance against the White Sox in nearly five years. The right-hander didn’t issue a walk and struck out three.
“He controlled the game and it was good to see,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said of Pavano, who threw 67 of 87 pitches for strikes.
Shin-Soo Choo and Jhonny Peralta drove in three runs apiece for Cleveland, which totaled 13 hits and scored three more runs than it did during its four-game slide.
Chicago lost for the seventh time in nine games as Gavin Floyd (2-3) gave up eight runs and 11 hits over five innings. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 9.73 ERA in four starts since April 19.
Floyd did not throw a first-pitch strike to the first 11 batters he faced. Pavano was 10-for-10 until Brent Lillibridge let an outside pitch go past for ball one.
“In the big leagues, if you don’t throw a strike, I don’t care how good you are, you’re going to get killed,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He couldn’t throw his curve for strikes because he couldn’t throw his fastball for strikes. You have to command your fastball to make the other pitches work.”