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Friday, Jul. 14 7:05pm ET
Tribe rookie Branyan drives in 4 runs | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Chuck Finley got off to another good second-half start -- with plenty of help from rookie Russell Branyan. Finley, who went 7-2 in the second half of 1999, had an All-Star performance and Branyan drove in four runs to lead the Cleveland Indians past the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-3 on Friday night. "I don't break the season down into halves," Finley said. "I'll get about 35 starts and add them all up at the end." Finley (8-6) allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings in his first outing since being the only AL All-Star not to play in his team's 6-2 victory over the NL in Atlanta on Tuesday night. The left-hander, signed as a free agent last winter after 14 years with the Angels, improved to 5-1 with a 2.33 ERA at Jacobs Field this season. "It's always easy to work when you have some runs," Finley said. "Your mistakes don't loom as large when you already have some runs." Kevin Young hit solo homers in the fourth and ninth innings for Pittsburgh. It was his fifth career multihomer game. Branyan hit a three-run home run to put Cleveland ahead in the second inning and had a sacrifice fly during a five-run fifth. It was the third time this season that Branyan had four RBI in a game. Manny Ramirez opened the second inning with a single to left and went to second on Jim Thome's single to right. Branyan then hit a high fly ball for his 12th homer, 432 feet to center for a 3-0 lead off Kris Benson (8-7). "Kris got that ball up in the strike zone," Pirates manager Gene Lamont said. "His control was not good. It has not happened often, but it did tonight." Pittsburgh made it 3-1 in the third on an RBI groundout by Jason Kendall. Young pulled Pittsburgh within 3-2 in the fourth by lining his 14th homer into the stands in right-center. He homered again to nearly the same spot leading off the ninth against Justin Speier. "Those are the only balls I've hit the other way that I can remember in a long time," Young said. "It's tough to gauge a pitcher when he's got such a big lead, but Finley was good. He got us out." Cleveland restored its two-run lead in the bottom of the fourth. Travis Fryman doubled, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Kenny Lofton's broken-bat, bloop single to center. The Indians went ahead 9-2 with a five-run fifth that began with three straight singles, included sacrifice flies by Fryman and Branyan, and was capped by Sandy Alomar's two-run double. Reliever Jeff Wallace hit one batter, walked another, and threw a wild pitch to fuel the rally. Game notesRain delayed the start 1 hour, 23 minutes. ... Finley struck out four, giving him a total of 2,269 to pass Hall of Famer Lefty Grove for 37th on the career list. ... Lofton improved to 20-for-56 (.357) with runners in scoring position. ... Branyan has 10 homers in 44 at-bats at Jacobs Field this season. ... Finley was the fourth left-handed starter the Pirates faced in the last six games. Overall, Pittsburgh is 11-14 against lefty starters. ... Young's homer extended his hitting streak to 13 games. ... Cleveland is 10-4 against NL teams this season and tied the Florida Marlins at 38-25 for the best record since interleague play began in 1997. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Pittsburgh Clubhouse Cleveland Clubhouse RECAPS NY Mets 6 Boston 4
Cleveland 9
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