CLEVELAND, Ohio — Manager Manny Acta has never made a truer statement.

"The night belonged to Justin Masterson," Acta said. "He was terrific."

Masterson pitched eight scoreless innings Wednesday night to lead the Indians to a 5-3 victory over the Yankees at Progressive Field. The Indians took two out of three from the Yankees in a meeting of division-leading teams.

The three-game series drew 102,702 fans.

Masterson (7-6, 2.66), after going 11 straight starts without a victory, has won two straight. He held the Yankees to three hits with six strikeouts and two walks.

Left-handers entered the game hitting .306 (74-for-242) against Masterson. Manager Joe Girardi's lineup featured three lefties and three switch-hitters.

"Their left-handers went 0-for-19 against him," Acta said. "He got his four-seam fastball in on just about everybody tonight. He used both sides of the plate very well."

The victory preserved the Indians 1 1/2-game lead over the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central.

"I was just mixing and matching," said Masterson, when asked about negating the Yankees' lefties. "I moved the ball in and out."

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He did it with power, too. Masterson was throwing 95 to 96 mph for much of the game. That's a few miles per hour faster than normal.

"Masterson is a big strong guy with a great arm," Acta said.

Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who left Tuesday's game with a sprained right ankle, kept the game scoreless in the eighth with two consecutive sparkling plays against Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira.

"I guess his ankle is all right," Acta said.

Cabrera retired Granderson for the second out of the inning on a strong play up the middle. Then he made a sliding stop against Teixeira, righted himself and threw Teixeira out to end the inning.

"The second one was the better play because it ended the inning," Cabrera said. "I'm not sure how I got up. I just felt the ball in my glove and made the play."

Derek Jeter started the eighth with a double to right field to bring him to within three hits of 3,000. No Yankees player has ever reached 3,000 hits. Masterson and Cabrera made sure he advanced no farther than third.

Indians reliever Vinnie Pestano entered the ninth with a 5-0 lead, but the first three Yankees he faced reached base. Nick Swisher's double scored Alex Rodriguez to make it 5-1. Indians closer Chris Perez relieved and retired three straight batters for his 21st save in 22 chances. Robinson Cano and Swisher scored in the process.

Perez has saved 15 straight games and 30 of 31 going back to last season.

Facing Yankees right-hander Phil Hughes (0-2, 10.57), making his first start since April 14, the Indians took a 2-0 lead in the first. After Michael Brantley drew a leadoff walk, Cabrera singled him to second. Travis Hafner's single made it 1-0.

Hughes struck out Carlos Santana on a breaking ball in the dirt that got past catcher Russell Martin. Cabrera advanced to third on the play and scored when Martin's throw skipped past Alex Rodriguez and into left field.

The only time Masterson ran into serious trouble was in the second.

Rodriguez opened with a single. Cano sent a sharp grounder to shortstop. Cabrera made a spinning stop, but the ball came out of his glove to put runners on first and second on the error.

First baseman Matt LaPorta, just off the disabled list, made a diving stop along the right-field line to save at least one run on Swisher's hard grounder. The runners advanced as LaPorta retired Swisher.

Masterson struck out Jorge Posada, and LaPorta made another nice play by charging a Martin bouncer at first to end the inning.

"We call that a shutdown inning and that was huge," Acta said. "If we let them back in the game right there, those two runs we scored are wasted."

Hughes went five innings and allowed two runs on six hits. He stranded eight runners. The Indians left 13 runners on base for the game.

Rookie Lonnie Chisenhall gave Masterson some room to work in the seventh when he hit his first big-league homer to make it 3-0. Chisenhall hit a 1-0 pitch into the stands in right field with two out off lefty Boone Logan.

The Indians added two more runs in the eighth for a 5-0 lead. Santana drew a bases-loaded walk off Sergio Mitre and Grady Sizemore hit a sacrifice fly to center.

To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter: phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158

Twitter: @hoynsie

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