Pavano pitches Cleveland Indians to 5-2 victory over Oakland Athletics

Pavano pitches Indians to 5-2 win over Athletics

CLEVELAND — Carl Pavano earned his first win in five starts, helping the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.

Ben Francisco and Grady Sizemore hit homers off Vin Mazzaro (2-4) for Cleveland, which won consecutive games for the first time since June 11-12. The Indians’ fourth win in 17 games overall stretched their winning streak to six against the Athletics since April 12, 2008.

Kerry Wood, the fourth pitcher used by Cleveland manager Eric Wedge, worked the ninth for his first save since June 23 and 10th in 14 chances overall.

Orlando Cabrera, whose 14-game hitting streak was snapped Friday, had three hits and an RBI for Oakland, which has lost eight of 10.

Pavano (7-7) allowed two runs and eight hits over 6 2-3 innings to improve to 1-3 since pitching a shutout against the Chicago White Sox on June 5.

Oakland took a 1-0 lead on a first-inning sacrifice fly by Matt Holliday. The Athletics left the bases loaded when third baseman Jhonny Peralta made a leaping catch of a line drive by Ryan Sweeney that would have scored more.

Cleveland went ahead 3-1 in the third on an RBI single by Luis Valbuena and two-run homer by Ben Francisco. It was Francisco’s first homer since May 27 and sixth overall.

The Indians threatened again in the fifth when Valbuena singled with one out and tried to score from first on a double by Francisco off the left-field wall. But shortstop Orlando Cabrera took the throw from center fielder Ryan Sweeney and relayed the ball home, where catcher Kurt Suzuki blocked the plate and tagged out Valbuena.

It was one of several fine defensive plays.

In the second, Oakland second baseman Mark Ellis turned a line drive by Travis Hafner into a double play by making a driving catch, easily doubling off Shin-Soo Choo from first base. In the eighth, Choo made a diving catch in right of pinch-hitter Nomar Garciaparra’s bid for extra bases.

Grady Sizemore led off the sixth with his 11th homer — a 412-foot shot over the center-field wall to make it 4-1.

Cabrera’s run-scoring single in the seventh got Oakland within 4-2 and gave the veteran a .355 (11-for-31) career average against Pavano.

Sizemore drove in another run with a broken-bat grounder in the seventh.

Mazzaro had allowed only one homer in six previous career starts since being called up June 2. The right-hander allowed five runs and eight hits over six-plus innings and fell to 0-4 in his last five starts.

NOTES: Cleveland C Victor Martinez was 0 for 4 and is on a 4-for-46 (.087) slump. … When Cleveland OF Shin-Soo Choo had four runs, seven RBI and a stolen base Friday night, he became the third player to do it since 1945, joining Hall of Famers Ted Williams (1949) and Willie Stargell (1968) according to the Elias Sports Bureau.