Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez has received a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for intentionally throwing a pitch at Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies during the bottom of the first inning of the Spring Training game on Sunday, April 1st in Scottsdale, Arizona. Joe Garagiola, Jr., Senior Vice President of Standards & On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement. Unless appealed, Jimenez is scheduled to begin serving his suspension on Cleveland’s Opening Day, Thursday, April 5th, when the Indians are to host the Toronto Blue Jays. If appealed, Jimenez’s suspension will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.

Doug Fister pitched eight strong innings and Alex Avila drove in three runs to help the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 14-0 last night.

Justin Verlander and Fister, who are scheduled to start the first two games of Detroit's first-round playoff series, are now acombined 14-0 with a 1.61 ERA in 16 appearances since August 16th.

Fister, who allowed three singles while striking out nine, has been even better than the Cy Young favorite in the stretch, going 7-0 with a 0.65 ERA in his last eight outings. Fister (11-13), who was picked up in a six-player deal with Seattle on July 30th, hasnow gone 20 innings without walking a batter.

Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4), another pitcher the Tigers looked at before acquiring Fister, gave up six runs on nine hits and three walks in five innings.

The Indians and the Tigers play game two of their three-game series tonight in Detroit. Jeanmar Gomez will start for the Tribe tonight against Maz Scherzer for the Tigers.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
 

Mark Buehrle bounced back from a poor outing and pitched six effective innings, leading the Chicago White Sox past the Cleveland Indians 8-4 Wednesday night.

Buehrle (12-9) gave up two runs and four hits. He had gone 0-3 with an 11.74 ERA in three previous September starts, allowing 33hits in only 15 1-3 innings.

Buehrle's skid included a career-worst 15 hits in 6 1-3 innings in a 7-2 loss to Kansas City last Thursday. The left-hander left that start after being hit in the left arm by a line drive off the bat of Alcides Escobar.

Alejandro De Aza hit a tiebreaking, two-run single off Ubaldo Jimenez (4-3) in a three-run seventh. Chicago added four runs on three homers off reliever Chad Durbin in the eighth.

Those the Chicago home runs were hit by Alexei Ramirez, Alex Rios and Brent Morel. Travis Hafner had a home run for the Indians in the game, his 13th of the season.

The teams play again tonight at Progressive Field to wrap up their four-game series. Jeanmar Gomez (4-2) will pitch for the Indians against Phillip Humbert (9-8) for the White Sox.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)