Indians Zap Devil Rays 5-1

The Cleveland Indians are known for their offensive rallies. They beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Saturday with a defensive one.

Boosted by four defensive gems in five batters, Chad Ogea allowed three hits in 7 1-3 innings as the Indians defeated the Devil Rays 5-1 for their second straight victory after losing 10 of 14.

"It was fun watching it," said Ogea, who didn't allow a hit until there were two outs in the sixth. "Whenever a guy throws a no-hitter, you always see great defensive plays made. Of course that was in my mind, I'm only human."

Sandy Alomar broke out of an 8-for-60 slump with three hits, and Jim Thome had an RBI double and a two-run homer, his fifth. But defense demoralized the Devil Rays, who made two errors leading to two Cleveland runs.

"Without those plays, we could have had some potential big innings," said Aaron Ledesma, robbed by shortstop Omar Vizquel in the third before getting the first hit off Ogea a grounder past a diving Vizquel with two outs in the sixth.

"He came pretty close to picking that one, too," Ledesma said.

Ogea (1-1), who beat Kevin Brown and the Florida Marlins twice in the World Series, outdueled former Marlins starter Tony Saunders. It was Ogea's third start after opening the season on the disabled list because of surgery on his left knee.

"Even when I gave up the first hit, I told myself, `Don't lose focus, don't lose focus,' " said Ogea, who faced the minimum through 5 2-3 before giving up Ledesma's single.

To that point, the only batter to reach was Fred McGriff, who led off the second with a walk but was forced out on a double play started by Ogea, who walked two and struck out five.

"Ogea was tremendous," Tampa Bay's Kevin Stocker said. "Each at-bat, he showed something different."

With one out in the third and the Indians leading 2-0, Fryman fielded John Flaherty's grounder behind the bag, and Thome scooped his throw out of the dirt at first. The next batter, Ledesma, hit a blooper to shallow left-center that Vizquel snared over his shoulder like a football receiver.

Vizquel, who extended his errorless streak to 62 games, slid on his right side to make the catch and grinned widely when he popped up.

"Sometimes you kind of rally your team by making great plays," Vizquel said. "It gets the guys pumped up."

With two outs in the fourth, Lofton sprinted into the right-center alley and caught a liner by Dave Martinez on the dead run to end the inning. The Indians took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the inning when Alomar singled and scored on David Bell's sacriice fly.

Miguel Cairo led off the seventh with an infield single, and Paul Sorrento broke up Ogea's shutout with a leadoff homer in the eighth that made it 5-1. Ogea came out after walking Flaherty two batters later.

Jose Mesa got the last two outs of the eighth, and Mike Jackson pitched the ninth as a heavy fog descended on Jacobs Field.

Saunders (1-3), roughed up for six runs in two-plus innings in Game 4 of the World Series against Cleveland, allowed three runs one earned and eight hits in six innings, walking three and striking out eight.

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