After a rough debut Cheap Jimmy Garoppolo Jersey , Cleveland Indians rookie Shane Bieber has found his routine.

Edwin Encarnacion and Lonnie Chisenhall hit back-to-back homers, Bieber pitched six strong innings and the Indians beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Wednesday night.

Bieber (3-0) struck out seven to become the seventh pitcher in baseball’s modern era to strike out six or more batters in each of his first four major league starts. After giving up four runs in 5 2/3 innings in his first outing, Bieber has given up just two runs in his last three starts and lowered his ERA to 2.22.

”It’s just being able to fall into a routine and just get a little more comfortable within that routine and within the clubhouse here and with the guys and all that,” Bieber said. ”That goes a long way to being able to establish what you want to do.”

The Indians avoided a series sweep and have won eight of 10. Cleveland starters improved to 17-2 with a 2.26 ERA across 26 starts in series finales, including wins in their last nine decisions.

”For a young kid when runners are on and things start to happen, he seems to pitch more maturely than his age would indicate,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. ”He starts throwing his breaking ball, gets some chase, doesn’t panic, game doesn’t speed up. That’s a real nice trait for anybody, let alone a kid that’s got four major league starts.”

Bieber jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Jack Flaherty in the fourth for a double, his first major league hit.

Jose Martinez snapped Bieber’s scoreless innings streak at 14 innings with a one-out RBI single in the third.

”I thought he had a good breaking ball Byron Jones Jersey Womens ,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of Bieber. ”It must have been a little different from than what guys have seen lately, you could tell some of the swings even in counts where they might have been looking for it might have been off a bit.”

Encarnacion and Chisenhall gave the Indians a 2-0 lead in the second, marking Cleveland’s fifth back-to-back home runs this season.

Francisco Lindor walked and Michael Brantley doubled to spark a two-run third that extended the Indians’ lead to 4-0. Tyler Naquin doubled home another run in the sixth.

Francona credited a loose atmosphere after the Indians dropped the first two in the series.

”It’s not necessarily about being silly but it’s about you don’t want to just be tight,” Francona said. ”We already lost a couple tough games and it’s nice to come back and play a good one with a day off tomorrow and a long flight.”

Flaherty (3-3) went four innings, his shortest outing this season as the Cardinals had their four-game winning streak snapped. It followed perhaps his most dominant start, in which he carried a no-hitter for 6 1/3 innings against Milwaukee on Friday.

”Those two home runs were missed spots and I just wasn’t able to execute,” Flaherty said. ”They hit some balls that fell.”

Matt Carpenter walked, doubled and scored a night after scoring five runs and getting five hits.

TRAINING ROOM

Indians: RHP Carlos Carrasco (right elbow contusion) threw a bullpen session and will throw about 65 pitches on a rehab assignment Saturday at Double-A Akron.

Cardinals: SS Paul DeJong (left hand fracture) is scheduled to meet with doctors Thursday with the hopes of being cleared to head out for a rehab assignment.

UP NEXT

Indians: RHP Trevor Bauer (7-5, 2.44 ERA) will kick off a three-game series against Oakland and RHP Paul Blackburn (1-2, 8.83 ERA) on Friday. Bauer is 1-2 with a 4.44 ERA in five career starts against the A’s.

Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (8-2, 2.69 ERA) will get the start as St. Louis hosts Atlanta and RHP Julio Teheran (5-5, 4.52 ERA) in the first of a three-game set Friday. Mikolas threw 2 1/3 scoreless relief innings in his only career appearance against the Braves on Aug. 15 Authentic Chad Thomas Jersey , 2012.

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The San Antonio Spurs face a near-must-win situation when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night.

And nothing would make the Trail Blazers happier than to snatch that victory away from the Spurs and rain a little on the parade San Antonio has enjoyed for the past two decades.

The Spurs (45-34) are in desperation mode although they begin play in the sixth playoff spot in the Western Conference with three games to play. San Antonio is tied with New Orleans and Oklahoma City for fifth place in the Western Conference standings, a game behind fourth-place Utah. But only one game separates fifth place from ninth place, with the top eight teams earning spots in the postseason.

San Antonio heads home for its next-to-last home game after two straight, last-second losses in Los Angeles, first to the Clippers Tuesday and then to the Lakers, with the latter a 122-112 setback in overtime the following night.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 28 points for the Spurs in the loss to the Lakers, while Dejounte Murray hit for 23 points and took 10 rebounds, and Pau Gasol had 11 points and 12 rebounds. Rudy Gay added 14 points off the bench for San Antonio.

The loss was San Antonio’s seventh straight on the road and kept the Spurs’ magic number to clinch their 21st consecutive playoff berth at two. Two of San Antonio’s last three games are against teams with winning records, including their season finale at New Orleans on Wednesday.

“Man, we’ve got to know that every game is a playoff, a Game 7 for us,” Murray said. “We’ve got to play for 48 minutes Authentic Logan Woodside Jersey , and if the game decides to go to overtime like it did tonight, we’ve got to be ready to play even more.

“We are staying together,” Murray added. “One thing I can say, we are staying together. There is a lot going on. When you lose games, it is easy to lose focus.”

For the first time in 18 years, the Spurs will not win 50 games in a season. And Gasol said that San Antonio’s margin for error is shrinking.

“We have been talking about that,” Gasol said. “It just gets slimmer and slimmer. It was the worst outcome, losing two games that we had our chances and even times, especially (against the Clippers), were in control of with big leads. But two losses, and that is reality.”

Portland (48-31) heads to the Alamo City in third place in the Western Conference standings, a game up on Utah but already assured of a spot in the playoffs. The Trail Blazers lost their most recent game at Houston 96-94 on Thursday despite allowing just 12 points in the fourth quarter and 30 points in the second half.

CJ McCollum led the Trail Blazers with 16 points Authentic Customized Bengals Jerseys , and Jusuf Nurkic had his 25th double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. Wade Baldwin IV scored 14 points while Caleb Swanigan had a career-high 10 points and Evan Turner had 10 points for Portland.

“I know we put in all the guys who don’t play a lot, everybody’s hungry,” Baldwin said. “Everybody wants to play in this league, everybody wants to show what they can do. I think everybody did a fantastic job of showing that tonight.”

Portland dropped its second consecutive game and fell to 4-5 since a 13-game winning streak launched them up the Western Conference standings

“Those guys at the end just worked their (butts) off,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “Played hard, were aggressive defensively. It was really impressive. Too bad we couldn’t go to overtime or win it, but I was really proud of the way they played.”

Portland’s star guard Damian Lillard has been hampered by an ankle injury but said Friday that he expects to play on Saturday in San Antonio.

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