Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - C.C. Sabathia resembled his Cy Young form of a season ago en route to tossing the seventh shutout of his career and second this season in leading Cleveland over Minnesota, 1-0 in the club's three-game series opener at Progressive Field.

Sabathia (4-8), who had dropped his previous three decisions, didn't walk a batter and allowed just five hits while striking out five. The lefty needed 106 pitches to shut down the AL Central foes, tossing 77 for strikes.

Ryan Garko brought home the lone run in the game, as he and David Dellucci recorded the only multi-hit efforts with a pair of singles each in helping Cleveland to back-to-back wins.

Sabathia's counterpart, Scott Baker (2-1), was nearly as effective in scattering eight hits, a walk and a run in his undeserved loss. The Twins, who have dropped a season-high six straight, recorded no extra base hits and only had one base runner reach second.

Sabathia allowed back-to-back singles to open the game and seemed on his way to another difficult outing. However, Joe Mauer lined out and Justin Morneau flied to short left. Carlos Gomez mistakenly wandered off second and was doubled off to end the Twins' only threat.

The Indians produced the only run they needed in the bottom half. Ben Francisco doubled off the left field wall, and Garko came through with two outs, sending a high, outside Baker offering up the middle to score Francisco.

Following a leadoff Mauer single in the fourth, Sabathia did not allow another base runner. Morneau followed Mauer's single with a 4-6-3 double-play ball, and no Twin managed to sniff the basepaths the rest of the way.

Sabathia mowed down 17 straight Twins, finishing off his masterpiece with a weak groundout to second from Alexi Casilla.