Angels Fall In 9th Inning To Indians

CLEVELAND (AP) — Asdrubal Cabrera singled home the winning run with one out in the ninth inning and the Cleveland Indians beat the struggling Los Angeles Angels 3-2 Friday night.

Albert Pujols went 1 for 4 as Los Angeles lost its fifth straight. He is homerless in 20 games since signing a $240 million, 10-year contract to join the Angels — his longest drought to start a season.

Aaron Cunningham opened the ninth against David Carpenter (0-1) by doubling over leaping left fielder Vernon Wells at the wall. Michael Brantley lined out to center before Jason Kipnis singled. Angels shortstop Erick Aybar got a glove on the line drive, slowing the ball down and preventing Cunningham from scoring.

Cabrera hit a 2-0 pitch to right, making the Indians 6-0 in one-run games and the Angels 0-6.

Vinnie Pestano (1-0) struck out the only two batters he faced for the win.

He replaced Justin Masterson after the Indians starter walked Kendrys Morales and Peter Bourjos in the ninth. Pestano fanned Vernon Wells and Aybar to keep it tied at 2.

Right fielder Torii Hunter drove in two runs and threw out a runner trying to score for the Angels.

Pujols lined a two-out single in the first and scored on a single to right by Hunter, who was out trying for second.

Despite the hit, it extended Pujols' homerless drought to a career-worst 109 at-bats. He has not connected since Sept. 22 last year with St. Louis.

Pujols, who on Thursday snapped his career-worst hitless streak at 21 at-bats with a ground single against Tampa Bay, has not homered in 20 games and 80 at-bats in an Angels uniform. He had a 105-at-bat drought April 23 to May 23 last year — then rebounded to help the Cardinals win the World Series.

The big first baseman made a good play in the field to keep the game tied in the eighth. With runners on first and third, he ranged far to his right to field a bouncer off the bat of Casey Kotchman and threw to second for the inning-ending force play.

The Indians have their own power outage. Cleveland hasn't hit a homer in nine games, their longest drought in 21 years. They also went without a homer for nine games in June 1991.

Cleveland got three hits and a walk in the second inning off Angels starter Jered Weaver and failed to score. Brantley singled and was thrown out trying to steal second as Kipnis struck out. Cabrera then singled and Travis Hafner walked. Carlos Santana singled to right, but Cabrera was easily thrown out at the plate by Hunter to end the inning.

In the first, the Indians got two hits and two walks off Weaver and didn't score. Kipnis grounded into a double play and Jack Hannahan struck out with the bases loaded.

Kotchman broke a 0-for-24 skid with a seventh-inning single off reliever Hisanori Takahashi and scored on a double by Brantley. Kevin Jepsen then yielded an RBI single to Kipnis that tied it at 2.

Weaver went six scoreless innings, allowing seven hits, walking four and striking out eight.

NOTES: Indians LHP Rafael Perez could be out three to six weeks with a strained muscle in his left side. Cleveland put Perez on the 15-day DL for the first time in his seven-year career and recalled LHP Nick Hagadone from Triple-A Columbus. ... Angels manager Mike Scioscia replaced RHP Jordan Walden with LHP Scott Downs as closer. ... Santana hit Cleveland's last homer, in the fifth inning April 17 at Seattle.