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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- The Cleveland Indians are batting .300 as a team, which makes pitching for them a pleasure. "It's like an All-Star team. These guys are fun to watch. They're explosive and they can make things happen," Dave Burba said after the Indians beat the Anaheim Angels 7-2 Friday night. Jacob Cruz hit his first homer of the year and doubled twice, and Marty Cordova extended his hitting streak to 22 games with an RBI double in the seventh inning. Cruz, helping to fill in for the injured Kenny Lofton, put the Indians ahead to stay with a two-run shot off Pat Rapp (1-4) in the second inning. Cruz also scored three times. "You lose a guy like Kenny Lofton and you fill in with a guy like Jacob Cruz and he hits a home run and doubles twice," Burba said, marveling at the Indians' depth. "You're not surprised because everybody here is capable of doing a good job." Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel certainly wasn't surprised. "When he (Cruz) first came up with us, I was the hitting coach and I worked with him a lot and liked the way he hit," Manuel said. "I thought that if he got a chance, he could hit." Burba (6-2) held the Angels to two runs -- one each in the first two innings -- on six hits in seven innings. He allowed no walks and struck out six. "Burba always seems to pitch well against this group of guys," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "I don't think his arm is maybe as strong as it used to be, but he's able to adjust to whatever stuff he has. He's having a very good year for them." Cordova, hitless his first three times up, doubled down the right-field line as Cleveland scored three in the seventh to go up 6-2. His hitting streak is second in the majors this year only to the ongoing 23-game streak by Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki. "He did a tremendous piece of hitting there to keep it alive," Manuel said. "The guy's been getting hits every day. I don't know what else I can say about him except, `Please just keep hitting.' " Cleveland's first run in the seventh came when reliever Mark Lukasiewicz's 2-2 pitch hit pinch-hitter Will Cordero -- the only batter he faced -- on the left foot with the bases loaded. Ellis Burks then hit a sacrifice fly off Al Levine, and Cordova followed with his double. Rapp allowed three runs on four hits in five innings. His two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Eddie Taubensee in the second inning was followed by Cruz's fourth major league homer. Roberto Alomar's RBI single, extending his hitting streak to 13 games, gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead in the opening inning. The Angels evened it in their half of the inning on Garret Anderson's RBI single. After Cruz's homer in the second, his first of the year, Anaheim narrowed the gap to 3-2 on Shawn Wooten's sacrifice fly. That was it for the Angels, who have been struggling on offense most of this season. "When you're not swinging the bat, everything is magnified," said Scioscia, whose club is batting .259, 41 points below the league-leading Indians. "As a team, we just have not settled down and started swinging the bats as a group. We haven't been able to string hits together." Game notesCleveland's Chuck Finley is not scheduled to pitch against his former Angels teammates in the weekend series. ... The Indians' Jaret Wright, the son of former Angels pitcher Clyde Wright and a native of Anaheim, is scheduled to start Saturday night, taking the mound for the first time this year after having shoulder surgery last August. ... While Anaheim C Bengie Molina has been on the DL for two weeks with a strained right hamstring, his job has mostly remained in the family. Molina's younger brother, Jose, has started nine games behind the plate.  Send this story to a friend
| RECAPS Baltimore 7 Minnesota 2
Cleveland 7
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