CLEVELAND — The Indians still can’t hit, but they can pitch. Boy, can they pitch.
Cleveland’s arsenal of dominant arms continued to carry the team Wednesday night at Progressive Field, with ace C.C. Sabathia the latest starting pitcher to lift the Indians to victory in a 2-0 shutout of the A’s.
The win moved the Indians into first place in the Central Division for the first time since the second game of the season.
Sabathia’s shutout continued a mind-boggling string of consecutive scoreless innings for Cleveland starters that rose to 431/3 in the second of a three-game series with Oakland. The Indians’ staff has allowed just one earned run in the last 481/3 innings, with Cleveland getting its fifth straight scoreless outing from a starter in its major league-leading eighth shutout of the season — fourth in five games.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said center fielder Grady Sizemore, who gave Sabathia a bit of a lift with a leadoff home run off Oakland starter Joe Blanton. “Offensively, we want to get on the board and help these guys out, but they’re taking matters into their own hands right now.”
“It’s pretty special stuff what they’re putting together right now,” said Indians manager Eric Wedge, whose team won for the seventh time in nine games. “It’s important that they don’t get complacent and keep doing what they’re doing. All we ask of them is to give us a chance to win the ballgame.”
Check, check, check, check and check.
The Indians went an entire turn through their rotation without any of the starters allowing a run. It began with Aaron Laffey, who pitched seven shutout innings in a 12-0 victory over the Royals on Saturday, followed by Fausto Carmona and Cliff Lee tossing 18 scoreless innings in a doubleheader split with Toronto on Monday. Paul Byrd then blanked Oakland through 7 1/3 innings Tuesday, and the scoreless stretch continued with Sabathia on Wednesday.
“It feels real good,” Sabathia said of the starting staff’s effort. “Everybody’s working hard and just trying to keep up. Nobody wants to be that guy (that ends the scoreless streak).
“I think we’re aware of how good we are.”
The A’s got a front-row view of how good the new-and-improved Sabathia is.
Allowing just five hits while striking out a season-high 11, Cleveland’s No. 1 starter, who scuffled at the outset of the year, didn’t give Oakland hitters room to breathe. The left-hander didn’t allow a runner to advance to third base and just two to second.
“Some of the swings they were taking off him, he must have been pretty special out there tonight,” said Cleveland third baseman Casey Blake. “He didn’t throw too well in his first three or four starts, but he’s made some adjustments and he’s got it going.”
“That’s the Cy Young Sabathia,” A’s first baseman Mike Sweeney said. “If he pitches like that the rest of the season, the (six-year, 137.5 million) contract that (Johan) Santana signed (with the Mets) will look cheap.”
That Sabathia’s dominant effort came against the A’s was a bit of a surprise. The team closest to his hometown of Vallejo, Calif., has always given him fits, with Sabathia entering the start with a 2-7 record and 6.84 ERA against Oakland.
“They make you throw strikes,” Sabathia said of the A’s. “I just wanted to throw strikes on both sides of the plate, make them swing early and try to put guys away.”
Sabathia’s struggles to start the season seem like a distant memory now. Through his first four outings, Sabathia allowed 27 earned runs. Over his last five, he’s given up only six earned runs.
The Indians didn’t do much at the plate, matching the A’s with five hits, but they made theirs count. Sizemore’s long ball in the opening inning was the first of two on the night from Cleveland, which also got a two-out solo shot from Ryan Garko in the fourth. It was Sizemore’s team-leading seventh of the season and the second in two games for Garko.
“I thought we swung the bats well tonight. We made a lot of hard outs,” Wedge said. “You’re starting to see some positive things from a number of individuals. It’s coming.”
That should be good news for the Indians and their fans, because the pitching is already here.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TODAY

WHO: Cleveland vs. Oakland
TIME: 12:05 p.m.
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Laffey (1-2, 1.83 ERA) vs. Smith (2-2, 3.00)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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