CLEVELAND — Fausto Carmona didn’t look any different than he did last year, and that had to be a scary sight for the White Sox on Wednesday night.
Carmona, the young right-hander who produced a breakout season in his first full year in a big league rotation in 2007, was just as dominant during his ’08 debut, pitching the Indians to a 7-2 victory at Progressive Field.
Carmona stayed hot despite working in the Cleveland cold
(34 degrees at game time), allowing just a run on four hits through seven innings. He did it all while pitching in short sleeves, something the majority of his teammates and opponents thought better of.
“I don’t like to pitch in long sleeves,” said Carmona through an interpreter. “I don’t worry about how cold it is. I’m always going to pitch in short sleeves, because that’s how I’m comfortable.
“I prepared for this season. I was looking forward to tonight. Hopefully that’s the way I pitch all season.”
Carmona, who was pitching in Cleveland for the first time since his midge-infested Division Series performance against the Yankees last year, was in the comfort zone for the majority of his outing with his heavy sinker working to perfection. Of the 21 outs he recorded, 16 came on ground balls, four on strikeouts and just one on a fly ball.
Carmona ended the first two innings with double plays, shutting out the Sox on one hit through the first four innings.
“That’s obviously a good indicator,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said of the results from Carmona’s sinker. “We had some big double plays early on.
“He was in control and command throughout. He did a good job of staying consistent and went right at them. You’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’re going to get when he goes out there.”
With Carmona holding the Sox lineup in check, the Indians scored twice in the second inning off Chicago starter Javier Vazquez — both on a two-out single from Grady Sizemore — before chasing the right-hander with two more in the fifth.
Sizemore was one of three Indians to enjoy multihit games — Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner the others — reaching base in four of his five trips to the plate, while scoring two runs and driving in three.
Sizemore and Cabrera, the top two hitters in the lineup, combined to go 6-for-9 with a double, triple and five of their team’s seven RBIs.
“We did a good job of getting the offense going,” Sizemore said.
Sizemore was more impressed with Carmona, who made it tough for the center fielder to stay warm with little action coming his way.
“You just run around in circles, do jumping jacks, anything you can do to stay warm,” Sizemore said. “He was on. He really dominated and kept them off balance.”
Masa Kobayashi relieved Carmona to start the eighth inning, making his major league debut.
The Japanese right-hander faced three batters, allowing singles to Juan Uribe and Orlando Cabrera and striking out Nick Swisher in a third of an inning.
“It was good for him to get out there,” Wedge said. “It’s going to be a situation where there’s going to be a little learning curve with him.”  
Cleveland is 2-0 to start the season for the second straight year, something the Indians hadn’t accomplished since 1954-55.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TODAY

WHO: Cleveland vs. Chicago
TIME: 12:05 p.m.
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Westbrook (6-9, 4.32 ERA) vs. Danks (6-13, 5.50)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

 

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