PHILADELPHIA — In four interleague games during the past two weeks against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cleveland Indians faced each one of the “Three Aces” — Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels.
They ended up beating all three handily.
Mike Aviles and Nick Swisher each hit home runs as the Indians pounded out six hits and scored five earned runs off Hamels in five innings during a 10-4 win over the Phillies in the finale of a brief two-game interleague series on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
Cleveland won three of the four games between the teams and outscored Philadelphia 32-12 in the process.
Hamels was the latest Phils pitcher who failed to hold up against the Cleveland lineup.
After Hamels worked two scoreless innings to start the game, the floodgates began to crack in the third.
Mark Reynolds delivered a two-run double with two outs down the left-field line that scored Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera to get Cleveland on the board.
Philadelphia got a run back in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Jimmy Rollins that scored John Mayberry Jr.
But Aviles answered in the top of the fourth with a solo homer that extended the Indians’ lead 3-1.
Then with a man on and one out in the fifth, Swisher blistered a Hamels cutter just inside the foul pole down the left-field line for his sixth homer of the season to give Cleveland a 5-1 edge.
The loss dropped Hamels to 1-6 on the season and the short outing upped his ERA to 4.61.
Philadelphia tried to get back in the game, clawing within 5-3 on an two-run double by Rollins just inside the right-field line in the fifth.
But the Indians broke the game open in the sixth on an Asdrubal Cabrera two-run single off Jeremy Horst. Kipnis added the exclamation point in the eighth with a three-run homer off reliever Raul Valdes.
Corey Kluber picked up the win for the Indians, going six innings and allowing six hits and three runs.