Laffey fits in with Indians' staff

May 16--CLEVELAND -- The nerve of Aaron Laffey. He gave up one run, unearned no less, over seven innings Thursday afternoon in yet another solid outing by a Cleveland Indians starter in Progressive Field.

And that was a disappointment. Seriously.

Laffey's throwing error allowed a run to score and broke up an incredible streak by Tribe starters but didn't end their dominance. The left-hander went on to pitch seven strong innings as Cleveland wrapped up a 6-1 homestand by holding on for a 4-2 win over the Oakland Athletics.

Cleveland starters entered the game with 43x consecutive scoreless innings and Laffey pushed that to 44x before finally getting touched in the Oakland second. With two on, No. 9 hitter Rob Bowen hit a little chopper in front of the plate that Laffey fielded and wheeled to his left to fire to first. But his throw went wildly into right field as Bobby Crosby scored.

"I can deal with giving up a base hit or a run," Laffey said. "I wasn't thinking about the streak but when it's an error like that, it's kind of disappointing. I picked up the ball and rushed it. I let go of the ball too early. I almost threw it to second base it seemed."

The 44x innings were the most zeroes for Cleveland starters since the 1948 World Series champions combined for 47, and the most for any team since the 1974 Orioles set the major league record of 54 innings.

"Rarely if ever do you see stretches like we're seeing from our starters," said manager Eric Wedge.

"To have five guys every day pitching like that day in and day out, that's pretty impressive," Laffey said. "A couple guys do it and it's great and you're thinking, 'There's no way all five can do it.' It's been an incredible week for starting pitching here."

Laffey (2-2) suffered no more damage after the error, retiring 12 of the final 13 hitters he faced. He allowed five hits over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 1.35 and extending his personal streak without an earned run to 21 innings.

Tribe starters have some staggering numbers. They have gone 50x innings without allowing an earned run. They worked 55 innings on the homestand and gave up one earned run (by C. C. Sabathia last Friday against Toronto). Yes, one. For those scoring at home, that's an 0.16 ERA over seven games.

"They never give up big hits it seems," said first baseman Ryan Garko.

Laffey has forced the Indians to keep him when it looked like he was returning to the Buffalo Bisons so Jeremy Sowers could be called up to pitch tonight in Cincinnati. Instead, the Tribe will designate outfielder Jason Tyner for assignment and let Laffey start again next week.