Peralta unloads as Indians bug Yankees

CLEVELAND - They were pesky, annoying and timely. They buzzed around the basepaths and bothered the New York Yankees.

And Cleveland's famous flying midges were nowhere to be found.

Jhonny Peralta hit a three-run homer off Andy Pettitte in the fifth inning and the Indians won their fourth straight last, beating New York, 6-4, in the Yankees' first visit since last year's AL playoffs when they were bombarded by swarming bugs.

Peralta's big shot off Pettitte (3-2) put the Indians ahead, 4-3, and Franklin Gutierrez followed with a homer off the lefty.

Peralta had four RBIs and Jamey Carroll had a run-scoring single and stole two bases for the Indians, who scored all their runs with two outs.

"This should give us confidence," said Paul Byrd. "It was 3-1 late in the game with two outs and we did little nit-picky things: A walk, a chopper, a base hit and we made something happen. That's what we did so well last year. It's the little things, the pesky walks, the getting guys over that makes things happen.

"We're hoping this continues."

Byrd (3-1) went 5 2/3 innings, reliever Rafael Perez blanked the Yankees for 2 1/3 and interim closer Rafael Betancourt worked a perfect ninth for his second save in two nights. He's filling in while Joe Borowski, last year's saves leader, rests a strained right triceps.

Jason Giambi homered twice and Hideki Matsui connected for the Yankees, whose previous trip to Cleveland ended with an unforgettable loss that began a chain of events leading to the end of manager Joe Torre's era in New York.

Alex Rodriguez returned to New York's lineup and went 0 for 4. He missed three games with a strained quadriceps, and said it's still tender.

Trailing 3-1, the Indians scored four times with two outs in the fifth off a tiring Pettitte.

Travis Hafner singled to left and Victor Martinez followed with a base hit. Peralta, who came in batting just .184 (7 for 38) in his last 11 games, drove a 3-1 pitch over the wall in left to make it 4-3. Gutierrez followed with his second homer for a 5-3 lead.