Sowers had the oddest outing of his young career. The left-hander gave up three hits and two runs over four innings, setting career highs of seven walks and eight strikeouts. In his first 196 innings in the majors, the first-round pick in the 2004 draft had only 53 walks and 77 strikeouts.

Kazmir, one of Tampa Bay’s three All-Stars, gave up five runs and eight hits over six innings, dropping to 1-4 in his last seven starts since June 11 following a six-game winning streak.

“It’s been a great first half,” Kazmir said. “There are going to be times like this in a season. We’re going to go through a bump or a slow stage, but we have to be able to bounce back. We have to not dwell on this.”

Notes: Tampa Bay is 36-14 and 19-25 on the road. ... According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Indians’ home winning streak over Tampa Bay is the longest current one of its kind in the majors. The Indians defeated the Detroit Tigers 15 straight in Cleveland from 1994 to 1997. ... Marte’s homer was his first in the majors since April 4, 2007. ... Sizemore has 23 homers and is the first Indians player to lead the AL in that category at the All-Star break since Jim Thome (26) in 2001. ... Rays OF Carl Crawford, in the worst hitless streak of his career (0-for-25) didn’t play. ... Rays DH Willy Aybar went 0-for-3 and is in a 1-for-16 skid.

MORE FROM BASEBALL

Baseball Section Front

Pujols a unanimous pick as repeat MVP winner   CTB: Pujols is MVP of the decade, too CTB: Mauer had truly historic season CTB: Twins hope to re-sign Mauer by Christmas CTB: Angels back in the Halladay chase CTB: Yankees planning on Joba, Hughes starting CTB: Cashman says Yanks will talk to his players first CTB: White Sox GM shouldn’t call out Jenks in public CTB: Should Tigers shop Cabrera? DeMarco: Red Sox should take measured approach   Baseball Section Front   Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: