Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Paul Byrd baffled the Oakland offense for 7 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, as the Cleveland Indians blanked the Athletics, 4-0 in a pitching duel at Progressive Field.

Byrd (2-3) tossed just 92 pitches -- 64 for strikes -- while allowing just five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in Cleveland's fourth win in its last five games.

The Indians starters have been terrific in the past four games. Against Toronto, Fausto Carmona and Cliff Lee each pitched nine scoreless innings in a doubleheader split on Monday, and Aaron Laffey silenced the Blue Jays for seven frames on Saturday. Cleveland starters have not allowed a run in 34 consecutive innings.

Ryan Garko hit a three-run homer, while Travis Hafner was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI for the Indians, who took the opener of this three-game set.

Justin Duchscherer (3-2) was saddled with the hard-fought loss after holding the Indians to just one run on four hits and two walks while fanning six in 6 2/3 innings for Oakland, which had won five of its last seven.

Ryan Sweeney accounted for two of the A's six singles.

Cleveland struck in the first when Duchscherer fell behind David Dellucci in the count and walked the left fielder with two outs. Victor Martinez then ripped a single to right and Hafner came through with a shot up the middle to plate Dellucci for the game's only run until the eighth.

It appeared as if Oakland would tie it an inning later as Sweeney blooped a single to center with Frank Thomas on second. Thomas was running on contact, but Grady Sizemore threw a frozen rope to the plate and Martinez executed a perfect block of home to deny Thomas from producing the tying run.

The Indians' defense was solid behind Byrd as well. Sizemore made a terrific diving catch on Kurt Suzuki's fly to center in the sixth, and Asdrubal Cabrera sprinted back to short center for another diving stop to steal a hit away from Bobby Crosby in the eighth.

With two outs and runners on the corners in the eighth, Garko added much- needed insurance runs by taking reliever Andrew Brown to straightaway center field for his third home run of the season.

Masahide Kobayashi earned the first save of his Major League career by tossing 1 1/3 innings of one-hit, no-run relief for Cleveland to close it out.