CLEVELAND — The Indians won a game and threw Cliff Lee a bone in the process Sunday at Progressive Field.
Turning back the Angels 4-3, Cleveland won the rubber match of a three-game series against baseball’s best team, while preventing one of Lee’s Cy Young competitors — Los Angeles starter Joe Saunders — from padding his statistics.
Saunders (14-5, 3.14 ERA) left without a decision after allowing three runs on eight hits in five innings, while the Angels dropped their first series since late June against the Dodgers — a span of 13 straight series without a loss.
Meanwhile, the fourth-place Indians are playing better baseball, winning seven of their last 10 games.
Pitching was at the forefront of Cleveland’s latest win, beginning with starter Jeremy Sowers, who allowed two earned runs on eight hits over 62/3 innings to get just his second victory in 15 starts — his first since July 19.
“I thought Jeremy did a good job,” said Indians manager Eric Wedge. “He’s doing a good job of utilizing all his pitches. He was efficient and under control.”
Despite allowing two runs in the opening inning, Sowers was able to persevere, shutting down one of the majors’ best lineups over the next three innings, while retiring seven of the last eight batters he faced.
Sowers (2-6, 5.46) has gotten better as the season has worn on. In his last seven starts, the 25-year-old left-hander has lasted at least six innings in six of them, while allowing three runs or less in four and no more than four in any of the outings.
Still, Sowers appeared headed for hard luck early, when the Indians picked up where they left off Saturday, committing an error in the opening inning after Grady Sizemore overran a ball in center that helped the Angels to a 2-0 advantage. Cleveland, which entered the series as the American League’s top defensive team (now fourth), committed four errors in Game 2.
Sowers had been dogged recently by slow starts, but this time it wasn’t on him.
“It was a little ironic that I had pitched so poorly early in games and this time I felt like I was making my pitches from the start,” Sowers said.
Cleveland hitters made amends by matching the Angels’ first-inning output against Saunders, getting a pair of one-out singles from Jamey Carroll and Ben Francisco, who rode home on Franklin Gutierrez’s two-out liner to center.
Gutierrez, who has struggled for much of the season at the plate, is beginning to pick up steam, going 3-for-3 Sunday to prop his average up to .394 (15-for-43) with two home runs and six RBIs over his last 13 games.
The Indians forged ahead for the first time in the third on Ryan Garko’s two-out single before Los Angeles tied it again in the fifth on a passed ball from backup catcher Sal Fasano that allowed Chone Figgins to score from third after the third baseman led off the inning with a single.
Cleveland took the lead for good in the sixth after Fasano led off with a double that just missed leaving the park in right-center, then rode home with the winning run on a bloop single to center from Sizemore that fell in front of a charging Torii Hunter.
But as has been the case for much of the season, the Indians had to sweat it out in the ninth inning.
With new closer Jensen Lewis on the mound, Juan Rivera blooped a single in front of Sizemore to lead off the inning and was replaced by pinch runner Gary Matthews Jr., who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.
Pinch hitter Kendry Morales singled to move Matthews to third, with the speedy Figgins batting next and giving the Indians little chance to turn a double play to end the game.
Instead, Lewis got ahead in the count against Figgins, who wound up popping out in foul territory to Carroll, before the right-hander retired Erick Aybar on a fly ball in foul territory to left field to earn his third save.
“Lewis was outstanding,” Wedge said. “You talk about the definition of a save, that’s it. Today was a great test for him.”
“The degree of difficulty right there was probably as high as it gets,” Lewis said.
Lewis, the latest to audition for the closer job, has converted three of his first four save opportunities.
But he paid homage to his former teammate at Vanderbilt, Sowers, for his latest one.
“You’ve got to look at this like if Jeremy Sowers doesn’t do what he did, we don’t win that game,” Lewis said. “We haven’t picked him up all year. There was no way I wasn’t picking him up in the ninth.
“It was just like in college. He started it off and I finished it.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

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