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KC@TOR: Villanueva tosses six brilliant innings

After a slow start to the season, the front end of the Indians' pitching rotation is finally performing the way manager Manny Acta expected it to. Justin Masterson seems to have found his groove in his last handful of starts and, prior to Saturday, Ubaldo Jimenez had found his.

If Cleveland wants to continue to compete for a division title, though, it will need another pitcher to step up. The rest of the Indians' rotation has been inconsistent, especially Derek Lowe, who will take the mound in Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Blue Jays.

Lowe started the season 6-1 and helped keep the Indians afloat as Masterson and Jimenez tried to return to form. But Lowe is just 2-5 in nine starts since then, and his ERA has risen from 2.05 to 4.43 during that span.

Lowe allowed a lot of traffic on the basepaths in his last start against the Angels on July 4, but he gave up only three runs over six innings. When he travels away from Progressive Field, however, Lowe seems to struggle. He's just 3-5 in road games this season, including 0-4 with an 8.88 ERA in his last five road starts.

Lowe thought the extra rest over the All-Star break would help him forget his struggles.

"Obviously, the road has been a struggle," Lowe said after his last outing. "This is gonna be good for me. It's gonna be a good, long break to try and sit back and be a fan for the next four days and over the All-Star break, and get rejuvenated for the second half."

The Blue Jays will counter with right-hander Carlos Villanueva, who will make his third start of the season after starting the year in the bullpen. Villanueva is 1-0 in his first two starts, earning a win in his last outing against the Royals. He pitched six innings of shutout baseball and allowed only four hits. Villanueva struck out seven and walked none.

"I felt like I really knew what I wanted to do from one through nine in the lineup," he said afterward. "It's just one of those days, a good feeling. I know I'm not going to feel like that every time. You get maybe 20 starts and you feel like that five times, so you try to take advantage it."

Because Villanueva is still early in his audition in the rotation, the Blue Jays will continue to monitor his pitch count. He threw only 85 pitches in his last outing.

Indians: Artificial turf forces lineup changes
• With the Indians in the midst of playing seven straight games on artificial turf in Toronto and Tampa Bay, manager Manny Acta said he will use a variety of lineups. Artificial turf tends to be hard on the body, especially the knees.

Designated hitter Travis Hafner -- who still isn't back to 100 percent after having knee surgery on May 31 -- didn't start on Saturday, but delivered an RBI pinch-hit single. He provided the only run in Friday's 1-0 win with a solo home run in the second inning.

"It's a tough trip for us," Acta said. "We have to try to monitor our players because ... it actually is tough on our guys, and so we have to kind of manage that and see who we can give a day off here [Toronto] or in Tampa."

• Center fielder Michael Brantley extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single in the second inning on Saturday. Brantley had a 22-game hitting streak earlier in the season. He finished with three hits, including a two-run homer in the eighth.

"He has been our savior, basically," Acta said, "because of the injury to [Travis] Hafner, and [Carlos] Santana not hitting the way we expected him to hit."

Blue Jays: d'Arnaud likely out for season
• Blue Jays' top prospect Travis d'Arnaud will likely miss the rest of the Minor League season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. d'Arnaud, a catcher, suffered the injury while trying to break up a double play on June 25. The Blue Jays were likely to call d'Arnaud up in September when the rosters are expanded to 40 players.

A California native, d'Arnaud is ranked the Blue Jays' No. 1 prospect according to MLB.com. He was hitting .333 with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs in 67 games with Triple-A Las Vegas prior to the setback.

"Every indication was because the MCL and the ACL were sound, there was no meniscus damage, it's a little less of a concern," manager John Farrell said. "But any time you're talking about the position [catcher], sure, a knee injury is of some concern."

• First baseman Edwin Encarnacion hit his 24th and 25th home runs of the season Saturday against the Indians. His career high for homers in a season came in 2008 when he hit 26 for the Reds.

Worth noting
• Lowe has the most experience against the Blue Jays of any player on the Indians' roster. He's 7-9 with a 4.37 ERA in 11 careers starts (42 games) against Toronto.

• Villanueva has a 1.59 ERA in four career appearances against the Indians.

• Toronto's Adam Lind is hitting .433 (13-for-30) with two homers and nine RBIs in his last eight games. He was 4-for-5 with four RBIs on Saturday.

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