KISSIMMEE, Fla. — C.C. Sabathia made his final exhibition start Wednesday in the Indians’ 7-6 victory over the Astros at Osceola County Stadium.
The next stop is the home opener Monday at Progressive Field, where Sabathia begins what could be his last year in Cleveland — the team that drafted him as a 17-year-old kid out of Vallejo (Calif.) High School.
Sabathia, the defending American League Cy Young Award winner, is in the final year of his contract. But instead of casting his mind toward the money available on the free-agent market, Sabathia will be focusing on bringing Cleveland a World Series title.
“I want to try to win a ring,” said Sabathia, whose Indians came a win shy of advancing to the World Series in 2007. “That’s my mindset. I don’t have to turn (the contract situation) into a big distraction, a big deal. Everybody knows how I feel about the team, the city.”
Sabathia, who is scheduled to make $9 million in the final year of a two-year extension he signed in April 2005 (Cleveland exercised the ’06 option at the time), looked in midseason form against the Astros. The left-hander didn’t allow a run through three innings and surrendered three runs on seven hits in seven innings, striking out six. He retired the last eight batters, striking out the final two.
With the Grapefruit League game at a National League park, Sabathia also got to do one of his favorite things — hit. Though he went 0-for-4, he did reach base on an error and score a run before hitting a fly ball to the warning track in his final plate appearance in the seventh inning.  
Cleveland manager Eric Wedge is satisfied that his ace is ready to start the season.
“He threw the ball well today,” said Wedge of Sabathia, who finished the exhibition season with a 3-0 record and 4.50 ERA in five starts. “He did everything you’d like to see him do.”
If this is Sabathia’s last hurrah in Cleveland, it’s been a memorable ride.
It began with a sparkling rookie season in 2001, when Sabathia turned 21 and went 17-5 with a 4.39 ERA as the youngest active player in the big leagues. He finished as runner-up to Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki for AL Rookie of the Year honors.
Sabathia won 64 games over the next five seasons, making the All-Star team twice (2003-04), before finally morphing into a true No. 1 starter last year, when he went 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA and led the majors with 241 innings (34 starts).

Coming together

The opening-day roster is all but set, with Cleveland officially naming Jorge Julio as the final member of the bullpen and optioning right-hander Tom Mastny to Triple-A Buffalo.
Julio allowed just two earned runs in nine exhibition games, striking out 13 in 11 innings.
“Everybody knows he’s got a great arm,” Wedge said. “But we saw him go out and pitch with consistency. He has a lot of back-end experience and we felt like he was a good complement to our bullpen.”
The Indians have yet to announce that left-handed reliever Craig Breslow and third baseman Andy Marte are on the team, but both are expected to break camp on the 25-man roster.
Cleveland still has 27 players from their 40-man roster in camp, with outfielder Shin-Soo Choo slated to begin the year on the disabled list and outfielder Ben Francisco still around as insurance if outfielder David Dellucci is not healthy enough to start the season. Dellucci is returning from a hamstring surgery and has missed time this spring with soreness in his left wrist and forearm. But the veteran looked healthy Wednesday, going 3-for-5 with a double, triple and three RBIs.
Wedge hinted that Dellucci would break with the team if he checked out after the game.
“I hope today proved I’m good to go,” Dellucci said.

Roundin’ third

The Indians return to Chain of Lakes Park today for the final time, hosting the Rays (1:05). Cliff Lee (1-1, 5.27) makes his sixth and final exhibition start, opposing right-hander and Wadsworth High grad Andy Sonnanstine (0-0, 0.64). SportsTime Ohio will televise the game live, with WEOL 930-AM providing radio coverage.
… The Indians need to draw 6,719 fans in their home finale (15th game) to set a Chain of Lakes attendance record, surpassing the mark of 87,292 in 1999 in one extra date.
… Fausto Carmona (2-1, 4.30) will start the first exhibition game in Atlanta on Friday (7:05 p.m.), while Jake Westbrook pitches the other on Saturday (1:05).    
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

INDIANS (14-12-3) 7, ASTROS (12-16) 6

Turning point

At Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Fla., Houston was within striking distance in the fourth inning when the Indians rallied for three runs with two outs off Astros starter Roy Oswalt to go up 5-0.

Hits

Franklin Gutierrez, Victor Martinez, David Dellucci, Asdrubal Cabrera and Ryan Garko enjoyed multihit games. Gutierrez and Martinez also mixed in some defense in the fourth, with Gutierrez’s strong throw to Martinez at the plate cutting down Lance Berkman and Martinez throwing to first to double up Miguel Tejada on the play. Needing to show the Indians he was healthy enough to break camp on the roster, Dellucci had three hits and fell a home run shy of the cycle.
l Reliever Rafael Perez retired the side in order to preserve the one-run lead.

Misses

Reliever Jensen Lewis let the Astros make things interesting, allowing three runs on four hits and a walk during his only inning, the eighth.
l Jamey Carroll was the only starting position player without a hit, going 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
l Kelly Shoppach struck out in his only at-bat in the ninth inning.

Finished business

C.C. Sabathia made his final exhibition start, allowing three runs on seven hits, while striking out six through seven innings. Sabathia, 3-0 with a 4.50 ERA in five spring starts, is scheduled to start the opener Monday at 3:05 p.m. against Chicago’s Mark Buehrle.

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