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Anaheim 4, Cleveland 1
ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Rookie Matt Wise allowed just three hits in 8 1/3 innings and Tim Salmon belted a three-run homer in the seventh, lifting the Anaheim Angels to a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
Making just his sixth appearance and fourth start, Wise (3-1) came up two outs short of his first complete game. He walked two and struck out a career-high five as he silenced Cleveland's powerful lineup and won his third straight start.
"He pitched about as well as you could expect against that lineup," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He worked his fastball on both sides of the plate, changed speeds very well and I think his control of the strike zone was even sharper than his other outing."
Kenny Lofton belted a homer leading off the top of the ninth to spoil Wise's shutout bid. The righthander got Omar Vizquel to ground out but was pulled after walking Roberto Alomar.
"It didn't matter if I went four or five innings, as long as we won," Wise said. "I wanted to go nine but I made a bad pitch to Kenny Lofton and he took advantage of it and hit it into the right-field stands."
"He just caught us on a day when we weren't swinging the bats well," Lofton said. "He threw the ball in good spots and he would do what he had to do to get us out. It worked out for him."
Shigetoshi Hasegawa was greated by Manny Ramirez's single to right but got Jim Thome to ground into a force play before striking out David Segui for his seventh save.
It was just the sixth win for Anaheim in 28 games against Cleveland dating to 1998.
Salmon drove in all four runs. He doubled home Darin Erstad with two out in the first inning to give the Angels the early lead. With two runners on in the seventh, he belted an 0-1 pitch from Justin Speier over the left-center field wall for his 29th homer, giving Anaheim a 4-0 cushion.
"Matt pitched great tonight and that was a pretty good offense he shut down," Salmon said. "I think it was the least we could do. We squandered some opportunities early and the way he was pitching, he should've had more than one run to work with."
Cleveland starter Dave Burba (11-6) surrendered three runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out five.
The Indians fell eight games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the American League Central and are one game behind Boston and Oakland for the wild card.
Anaheim pulled to within 2 1/2 games of Boston for the wild card.
Anaheim broke on top in the first. Erstad led off with a single and came home on two outs later on Salmon's double to left field.
Erstad tied a season high with his fourth four-hit game of the season. He has 193 hits, setting a club record for most hits by a lefthanded batter. Garret Anderson had 189 in 1997.
Wise allowed a two-out single to Roberto Alomar in the first and did not surrender another hit until Jim Thome singled with two outs in the seventh. The only other baserunner in between was Omar Vizquel, who walked to start the fourth.
Burba settled down after the first, limiting the Angels to six singles over the next five innings. But in the seventh, Erstad again opened with a single and Mo Vaughn drew a one-out walk.
"He (Wise) pitched a great game and I had some situations where I got out of jams and kept us in the game," Burba said. "But I got tired there at the end and I was having some problems with a blister. Basically, I kind of pushed the envelope. I shouldn't have gone out there but I thought I could go another inning."
Speier came on and Salmon greeted him with his homer, pushing the advantage to 4-0.
"Justin came in and made a good pitch down in the zone but it was in the middle of the plate and guys like Tim Salmon hit those pitches," Burba said.
Salmon tied a season high for RBI. He also drove in four runs against Kansas City on May 20.*