Six and counting does not refer to the number of wiseguys whacked on The Sopranos this season.
Actually, it might, but the issue here is the Indians, who won their sixth game in a row Tuesday night at Jacobs Field.
The Tribe toppled Seattle 9-5, even though Mariners killer Cliff Lee appeared to hit the wall in the sixth inning and gave up two runs.
Even though their heretofore impenetrable relief corps looked a little shaky, the Wahoos won.
Vulnerabilities that often make the difference didn't matter. Winning might indeed be contagious. If so, maybe the Indians will remain in quarantine for several more days, while the Mariners then the Tigers try to find the antidote for rampant early season success.
Even the fans are responding. Attendance of 17,559 was hardly historic, but there was a walk-up crowd of 2,700, unusual for April. Of course, so was the temperature, 73 degrees at first pitch.
``Everybody feels confident,'' Lee (1-0, 3.97 ERA) said of the persistent winning. ``We're on a roll. For me, I only pitch once every five days, so the streak doesn't really have anything to do with me. It's the offense. Everybody is doing it.''
On this night, the attack began slowly but eventually turned on the jets to amass 13 hits, including six for extra bases.
Jhonny Peralta collected three hits, including a two-run homer and a double. He drove in two runs and scored three.
His explanation was simple: ``I feel pretty good,'' Peralta said. ``I don't like cold weather. Hot is better.''
Victor Martinez also had three hits, including a double, and contributed two RBI.
Travis Hafner continued to excel at big ball, hitting his fifth home run of the season in addition to a single. He also had one RBI and scored three times.
Peralta, Hafner and Martinez comprise the three, four and five hitters in the lineup, who together were 8-for-10 with five RBI and six runs.
``They do complement each other,'' manager Eric Wedge said. ``But I don't look at it as just the 3-4-5 guys. There are the hitters in front and behind them.''
It was a game in which if the Tribe scored three runs, the Mariners would rally for one, and that is not the way to beat the white-hot Wahoos.
For a while, it didn't look like the offense would be called on to win the game at all. Lee was doing well enough all on his own.
He didn't give up a hit until Kenji Johjima doubled with two out in the fifth inning.
Through five, Lee put only one other runner on base -- Ichiro Suzuki, who walked leading off the game -- and struck out eight. In other words, he did nothing to foreshadow what would transpire in the sixth inning.
``Mostly, I was throwing fastballs and locating them,'' Lee said.
With a suddenness of a team that knew what was coming, the Mariners began hammering Lee's pitches. Yuniesky Betancourt, who bats ninth, led off the sixth with his first of three doubles, and one out later, Jose Lopez homered to cut the Cleveland lead to 6-2.
No big deal, really, but Lee limped through the rest of the inning, which culminated with second baseman Ronnie Belliard snagging a wicked line drive off the bat of Carl Everett.
Wedge acted as though the rough inning never happened.
``I thought Cliff was good throughout,'' the manager said. ``They have a pretty good lineup over there. Cliff had to work a little; his pitch count (96) was up a bit as he went through the sixth inning.''
Lee felt that Betancourt hit a good pitch, but not Lopez.
``He did what he was supposed to do with that pitch,'' Lee said.
With a large lead, Lee was concentrating on not giving up walks.
``You get a lead like that, you don't want to put guys on with walks,'' he said. ``And we had a big enough lead.''
Fernando Cabrera, Matt Miller, Scott Sauerbeck and Rafael Betancourt kept the hopes of the Mariners alive, though with nine runs through the seventh, the Tribe was almost upset proof.
But the three relievers combined to allow three runs, four hits, two walks and a hit batter in three innings.
``They had to work for it tonight,'' Wedge said. ``But in the end they got the job done. That's the bottom line.''
And when the bottom line has produced six wins in a row, why quibble about small malfunctions?
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