A day after Cecil Cooper ripped his team for bad throws, the Astros had three errors and a costly base-running mistake in a 7-6 loss to the Indians on Wednesday.
Four of the five runs allowed by ace Roy Oswalt were unearned in a rough 3 2/3-inning outing. Oswalt had one of the errors.
“We’ve got to get better at fundamental plays,” said Cooper, whose team has 36 errors this spring. “Today, we had a couple easy ones early on and we didn’t execute them, and it turned out to be a key in our big man throwing a lot of pitches in the first inning.”
The Indians didn’t have an error, and reigning Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia was efficient. He had no walks and six strikeouts in seven innings, the longest outing of the spring for a Cleveland pitcher.
*Kelvim Escobar, an 18-game winner for the Angels last season, said he has a tear in his pitching shoulder and might need surgery. The team hadn’t confirmed that diagnosis by the end of its 7-5 loss to the Cubs. The 31-year-old right-hander said he would continue to try to strengthen his arm, but admitted surgery could be a possibility. Escobar, 18-7 with a 3.40 ERA last season, hasn’t pitched this spring. … Twins left-hander Francisco Liriano will start Friday, when the team will decide whether to bring him to Minnesota next week or leave him in Fort Myers for another minor league start. … Skip Schumaker continued his strong spring with two hits helping the Cardinals to a 8-2 win over the Orioles. Schumaker, a candidate for the right fielder job, had an RBI triple in the fifth and a double in the sixth. He is batting .382 this spring.
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Edited by Bob Foltman from Tribune news services.
