CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Matt Lawton belted a three-run homer in the fourth inning and rookie Jason Davis pitched a career-high seven innings to lead the Cleveland Indians to an 8-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Cleveland was trailing 2-1 when Lawton hit a 2-2 pitch from Baltimore starter Omar Daal (0-2) over the right field wall.
"I only faced him once before, so I didn't know much about him," Lawton said. "In the first at-bat, I saw just about all his pitches, so I had an idea what to look for. I hit a changeup. I think I am starting to swing the bat better. I had hits in the last two games and I was able to sneak in two tonight. If I use the whole field, it makes me a better hitter."
Cleveland manager Eric Wedge agreed.
"You can see he is starting to come around," Wedge said of Lawton. "He has been swinging the bat better. He's a professional hitter. I think he is going to be OK and produce."
Ellis Burks drove in two runs and Milton Bradley and Shane Spencer each collected three hits for the Indians, who won for just the third time in their last 10 games.
Bradley extended his career-high hitting streak to 13 games - the longest in the major leagues this season - with a single in the fourth. But he left in the top of the ninth with a muscle cramp in his left calf and would not speak to reporters after the game.
"Milton continues to do an outstanding job for us," Wedge said. "He's play well in all parts of the game."
Davis (1-2) picked up his first win of the season after allowing three runs and eight hits.
"I was more relaxed tonight then I was in the first two starts," he said. "I just concentrated on throwing and didn't worry about anything else. I was throwing strikes with my two-seamer and my split got better and better. I kept my fastball down to get a lot of ground balls."
Baltimore, which fell to 11-32 at Jacobs Field since 1994, hit into three double plays.
"We hit into some double plays, but they were hard hit balls," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "They made some great defensive plays over there. I am happy with the way we swung the bats. We could have had more that three runs."
Daal gave up seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings before getting tossed for hitting Lawton. He was ejected immediately by plate umpire Brian O'Nora.
"O'Nora told me it was because Lawton hit a home run in the previous at-bat and then (Daal) hit him in the next," Hargrove said. "Under that explanation, he could have kicked him out. However, I still do not think it was the right call."
Daal was perfect on his first trip through Cleveland's lineup but the Indians adjusted the second time through.
"He was down in the strike zone in the first three innings," Hargrove said. "However, in the fourth he came up and they started hitting it. I think he might have lost his arm slot."
The Orioles owned a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when Jeff Conine drove in a run with a double and scored on Tony Batista's single.
After Cleveland recorded a four-run fourth, Jerry Hairston Jr. belted his first homer of the season in the fifth to get Baltimore within a run.
However, the Indians broke open the game in the fifth as Bradley doubled with one out and Omar Vizquel had an infield single to snap an 0-for-16 stretch. Burks followed with an RBI single and Spencer delivered a run-scoring double. After Daal plunked Lawton, Pat Hentgen came on and uncorked a wild pitch that scored Burks for a 7-3 lead.
Vizquel added an RBI triple in the eighth to complete the scoring.
