CLEVELAND — Other than the rain, which according to the song by Albert Hammond, never falls in Southern California, the San Diego Padres must have felt right at home Friday night.
The majority of games on the West Coast begin at 10:05 EST, which is about the time the Indians-Padres interleague series opener at Progressive Field resumed, following a rain delay of close to three hours.
That’s where the friendly confines ended for the visitors, though.
In a game that took 6 hours and 15 minutes to complete, Cleveland came from behind to defeat San Diego, 9-5, in just the seventh meeting ever between the two teams.
A two-out, two-run single from Shin-Soo Choo put the Indians in front by a run in the sixth, with Grady Sizemore’s second home run of the night — a two-run shot to right field in the seventh — providing the insurance in Cleveland’s fourth win in five games.
The victory kept the Indians 6½ games behind the front-running White Sox in the Central Division standings, while the Padres lost for just the fourth time in their last 11 games.
First pitch was at the regularly scheduled time of 7:05 p.m., but the two teams failed to make it through an inning before thunderstorms delayed the game with Cleveland batting and two out.   
Oddly enough, both starting pitchers, Cleveland’s Jeremy Sowers, and San Diego’s Josh Banks, were back on the mound after the delay. Banks, in his third start of the season, fared a bit better upon his return.
The right-hander allowed three runs on five hits through five innings, while Sowers, who was presented with a 3-0 cushion through three innings, surrendered five runs on nine hits through just 4 1/3 innings of his fourth big league start.
San Diego scored twice off Sowers in the fourth before a two-run homer from red-hot Adrian Gonzalez in the following inning chased the left-hander. It was Gonzalez’s 19th homer and 62nd RBI of the year.    
The Indians grabbed the early lead thanks to a leadoff home run from Sizemore in the first inning that arrived before the delay. It was the fifth time this season that Sizemore has started the game with a homer, matching the club record set in 1999 by Kenny Lofton, and was the third straight game in which Cleveland’s center fielder went deep.
Both replacements for disabled catcher Victor Martinez and second baseman Josh Barfield joined Sizemore to have big nights for the Indians.
Backup catcher Kelly Shoppach hit a two-run homer to put Cleveland up by the early 3-0 margin, with Jamey Carroll going 3-for-4 with an RBI single in the eighth. Carroll has 11 hits in his last 14 at-bats to raise his season average to .287.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT

WHO: Cleveland vs. San Diego
TIME: 7:05
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Lee (10-1, 2.52 ERA) vs. Baek (1-1, 3.97)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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