Choo’s first career homer beats Mariners

CLEVELAND – Shin-Soo Choo hit his first career homer and won over the fans in his Cleveland debut as the Indians beat the Seattle Mariners 1-0 Friday night.

Choo, acquired Wednesday from Seattle for first baseman Ben Broussard, hit a 3-0 pitch from Felix Hernandez (9-9) over the wall in left-center with two outs in the sixth inning.

The crowd gave the 24-year-old a standing ovation when he went out to right field the next inning, many crooning, “Chooooooo!” One fan held up a sign with a locomotive drawn on it. The sign read, “Choo, Choo.”

“I don’t know why they did it, but I like it,” said Choo, who had no difficulty going deep with his 426-foot shot, but had some trouble dialing long distance after the game.

“I tried to call my wife in Seattle, but she didn’t answer,” he said.

Jeremy Sowers had a good fastball, slider and changeup – then finished off his second consecutive shutout with a sales pitch.

Sowers (3-3) allowed only five singles. He convinced manager Eric Wedge to leave him in the game with two outs, a runner on first, and slugger Richie Sexson coming to bat in the ninth.

Sowers got Sexson to fly out on his 109th pitch as Cleveland won for only the sixth time in its last 19 games.

Sowers became the first rookie to throw consecutive shutouts since Florida’s Dontrelle Willis did it June 16-21, 2003.

Choo, who hit .323 with 13 homers, 48 RBIs and 26 stolen bases for Triple-A Tacoma this year, walked his first two times up before getting the green light on a 3-0 pitch.

“I know Choo well enough to know he can drive the ball out of the ballpark,” Hernandez said through interpreter Carlos Garcia, the Mariners’ third-base coach.

“I tried to throw a sinker away, but it stayed up and didn’t do anything.”

Hernandez walked a career-high six over six innings, allowing one run and four hits and striking out four.