Indians edge sinking Yankees 5-4 in 16 innings
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Michael Brantley's RBI single with one out in the 16th inning lifted the Cleveland Indians to a 5-4 victory over the skidding New York Yankees, who lost their fourth straight and had their lead in the AL East over Toronto trimmed to one-half game.
Brantley hit a hard single off Branden Pinder (0-2) that first baseman Mark Teixeira couldn't handle and easily scored Jose Ramirez from second base. Brantley's clutch hit ended the 5-hour, 4-minute game and triggered just the second walk-off winning celebration by the Indians this season.
Austin Adams (2-0) worked a perfect inning and combined with seven other Cleveland pitchers to record 16 strikeouts.
The first four hitters in New York's lineup -- Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Alex Rodriguez and Teixeira went a combined 1 for 25.
Stephen Drew and Carlos Beltran homered for the Yankees, who have hit a rough patch at the wrong time.
New York, which led the second-place Blue Jays by seven games on July 28, went ahead 4-2 in the 10th on pinch-hitter Chase Headley's two-out, two-run single off Bryan Shaw.
But for one of the first times all season, the Yankees' reliable bullpen couldn't protect the lead as Andrew Miller blew his first save in 25 tries this season.
That's how it's going for the Yankees right now. Nothing is clicking.
The Yankees came in with their bats sound asleep, and Indians starter Carlos Carrasco kept them that way.
The Bronx Bombers were shut out in consecutive games over the weekend by Toronto, and Carrasco blanked them for the first five innings, running New York's scoreless drought to 31 innings -- the club's longest since 1991 -- before Drew opened the sixth with his 14th homer.
It was the first run allowed by Carrasco in 22 innings, and the right-hander was six outs from his 12th win before Beltran turned on one of his fastballs in the eighth to tie it 2-2.
Carrasco finished with a no-decision despite his third straight powerful outing. The right-hander has allowed only three runs and seven hits in his past 26 innings.
He outpitched Yankees rookie Luis Severino, who shook off a slow start in just his second major league outing and gave up two runs and seven hits in six innings.
Carrasco got a spectacular defensive play from rookie third baseman Giovanny Urshela in the fourth.
Gardner hit a ball down the line that Urshela stopped with a back-hand near the bag. In one motion, Urshela leaped and made a strong throw from foul territory across the diamond -- a la Derek Jeter -- to nip Gardner.
