Chris Perez insisted it was no big deal that his 20th consecutive save came against his old team. The body language begged to differ.

The Cleveland Indians closer finished off a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday while battling an upset stomach that left him spitting up fluid between pitches. After getting Adron Chambers on a popup with a man on first for the final out, Perez went down to one knee.

“I drank some warm water and I ran out there, and it just didn’t settle well,” Perez said. “What am I going to do, call timeout and run into the dugout?

“If you remember, a couple years ago in spring training it was the same situation. So I need to stay away from warm water.”

Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis hit a tiebreaking three-run homer off closer Jason Motte in the ninth inning after the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the eighth. Vinnie Pestano (3-0) walked three straight batters with one out in the eighth but recovered to strike out No. 3 hitter Yadier Molina and cleanup man Allen Craig.

“That’s the game right there,” Kipnis said. “I thought both starting pitchers did a great job, and it just came down to who can execute late.”

Carlos Beltran homered for the second straight day to increase his National League-leading total to 18, and Joe Kelly allowed one run in five-plus innings in his major league debut for the Cardinals. St. Louis is the only major league team that has not won a series over the Indians, who are 14-6 overall and 8-4 on the road against the Cardinals.

“It’s a little bit of everything right now,” Beltran said. “We’ve been battling injuries and things like that, but at the same time we just need to find a way to play better. There’s no excuses.”

The Cardinals have lost eight of 12 and totaled just five runs in the series. They went the last two without cleanup hitter Matt Holliday, who could return from mid-back spasms on Tuesday after the team’s off day Monday.

“Guys are grinding. They’re fighting, and I’m going to continue to stay optimistic because that’s what I believe,” manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s not a facade — it’s only a matter of time before we take off.

“When we take off, it’s going to be a good run.”

Michael Brantley extended his hitting streak to 18 games and Ubaldo Jimenez had a season-best seven strikeouts in seven strong innings for Cleveland.

The Indians had scored just one run in 19 innings before the ninth, when pinch hitter Johnny Damon hit a leadoff single and Asdrubal Cabrera walked with one out. Kipnis hit his 10th homer on a 2-2 fastball from Motte (3-3).

On Saturday, Motte got Kipnis to fly out to right on a pitch that he thought had a slightly better location.

“It’s just one of those things,” Motte said. “He got the barrel on it. It happens.”

The Indians won despite going 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and 2 for 18 with men on base. Perez, who once competed with Motte for the St. Louis closer spot, has been flawless since blowing a save on opening day.

“I enjoyed pitching out there today, beating my former team, but at the end of the day I was just trying to get the save,” Perez said. “If I go out there too amped up and trying to do too much, I wouldn’t have had a good outing.”

Jimenez had his first walk-free game of the season, after coming in with 43 walks in 62 2/3 innings. The right-hander has walked just one in his last two starts covering 13 2/3 innings and faced only three three-ball counts against the Cardinals. The first came in the first inning against Beltran, who belted a 3-1 pitch an estimated 428 feet to right-center.

Jimenez then retired 13 in a row, including five strikeouts in a span of eight at-bats.

Kelly, who replaced the injured Jaime Garcia in the rotation, left to a standing ovation after Brantley singled to start the sixth and kept his hit streak alive.

“It felt like another start,” said Kelly, who began last season at the Class A level. “I didn’t think I was going to sleep last night and I got great sleep.

“I was relaxed. It was good to go.”

Brantley is batting .357 (25 for 70) during his hit streak, the longest current run in the majors and two shy of the season’s longest by Adam Jones of Baltimore that ended May 30. Brantley can match his career best, set in 2010, at Cincinnati on Tuesday.

— Associated Press —

Carlos Beltran would prefer to hit in one spot every day. No matter where he lands on the lineup card, there’s no arguing the results.

Primarily the St. Louis Cardinals’ cleanup man, Beltran provided some pop batting second in a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night. Beltran hit his National League-leading 17th home run in support of Kyle Lohse, who allowed three hits in 7 2/3 innings to outduel Justin Masterson.

“I felt in control, I felt like I was getting pretty quick outs,” Lohse said. “If I’m doing those things, keeping the ball on the ground, that’s my plan.”

Beltran has batted cleanup 31 times, third three times and second 18 times. Manager Mike Matheny resisted the temptation to shift Beltran back to cleanup after Matt Holliday was scratched just before the first pitch with mid-back spasms.

Beltran, who has homered nine times batting second, also leads the Cardinals with 45 RBIs.

“For me, honestly this year has been more difficult than any year,” Beltran said. “As a player I like to come to the ballpark and just know I’m going to hit in one spot and just be there.”

Michael Brantley had two singles to extend his hitting streak to 17 games for Cleveland. But the Indians had only three runners in scoring position against Lohse (6-1), who ended a string of five starts with no-decisions and a 5.16 ERA, and two relievers.

Beltran homered with two outs in the third and had three of the seven hits for St. Louis, which has won three of four. Shane Robinson doubled to start the eighth and scored on Rafael Furcal’s one-out sacrifice fly against Jeremy Accardo.

The game took just 2 hours, 14 minutes, the fastest of the season for both teams. It was the first time the Indians were shut out, leaving only the Tigers who have yet to be blanked.

Manager Manny Acta put his thumbs up in celebration.

“Step in the right direction, that’s great,” Acta said. “It took over two-something months for us to get shut out. They’ve been battling. It had to happen.”

Masterson (2-6) struck out six with no walks in seven innings, while giving up five hits, but fell to 1-4 in his last seven starts. He retired the side in order in three of his last four innings and walked none.

Indians pitchers totaled one walk, an intentional pass from Accardo to Yadier Molina in the eighth that also represented the lone three-ball count against a St. Louis hitter.

“We were right there,” Masterson said. “A little slider that was just hanging up to Beltran. Besides that I was happy with the way things went.”

Lohse moved a game above .500 at 108-107 in his career with his first win over the Indians since 2004, when he worked an inning of relief in a 12-inning game. The outing was his longest of the season, one out longer than on Opening Day when he won at Miami. He also threw 105 pitches for his first time in triple digits this season.

In his last two starts, Lohse has allowed one run on five hits in 13 2/3 innings.

“It’s about as sharp we’ve seen him,” Matheny said. “He was locating everything. It was a great display of pitching.”

Molina threw out Asdrubal Cabrera attempting to steal, ending the eighth on reliever Marc Rzepczynski’s only pitch, and Jason Motte finished for his 11th save in 14 chances.

Brantley is 24 for 65 (.369) during the longest current streak in the majors.

Molina reached a pair of firsts for St. Louis, batting third the first time in his career and getting caught stealing for the first time in six attempts on a nice throw by catcher Carlos Santana to end the sixth. The slow-footed Molina usually catches foes napping.

Matheny said Holliday told him he couldn’t go “about two minutes before we exchanged lineup cards.” He didn’t think Holliday, who underwent treatment throughout the game, would be out long.

“There was some mad rushing going on to get everybody in place, I think he did a smart thing and pulled up,” Matheny said. “He probably could have pushed through it.”

— Associated Press —

Josh Tomlin wanted to talk about his hitting, not his pitching.

Tomlin scattered eight hits over seven innings, Johnny Damon hit a two-run homer and the Cleveland Indians beat St. Louis 6-2 Friday night to send the Cardinals to their seventh loss in 10 games.

In Tomlin’s view, his sixth-inning single was more significant. He improved to 3 for 5 at the plate in his big league career.

“Being in the AL, we don’t get to do this kind of stuff,” he said. “I like being a part of the game both on the offensive and defensive side.”

Tomlin has three of the four hits by Indians pitchers since the start of the 2011 season.

“If you’re going to have to hit you might as well be a complete baseball player,” Tomlin said. “You don’t want to go out there and just give away at bats. You want to do as much as you can to help your team win in a situation like that.”

Tomlin (3-3) pitched shutout ball into the seventh, when he allowed a two-run single to pinch-hitter Matt Adams. He threw just 76 pitches, improving to 4-0 in interleague play.

Tomlin was coming off his poorest outing this season, when he allowed five earned runs over six innings in a 7-4 loss to Minnesota on June 2.

“He was aggressive, attacking the zone early,” Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. “He had a good curveball with depth and that helped him keep those guys off balance.”

St. Louis managed just five hits over the first six innings.

“This is the first time I’ve faced him and he pitched well, he used every pitch,” the Cardinals’ Carlos Beltran said. “He did a good job.”

Tomlin was pitching on five days’ rest.

“The biggest key for me was being able to throw four different pitches for strikes,” he said. “I tried to establish the inside of the plate and keep them off balance the best that I could.”

Former Indians pitcher Jake Westbrook (4-6) gave up four runs — three earned — and eight hits in six innings. He struck out seven and walked one.

“They jumped on everything Jake left up in the zone and made him pay,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. “Then we were in a rut, in a hole.”

Michael Brantley extended his hitting streak to 16 games as the Indians won for the third time in their last four games.

Cleveland went ahead for good in the first when Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Kipnis hit one-out singles, Carlos Santana followed with an RBI double off the left-field wall and Brantley hit an RBI groundout.

Casey Kotchman hit a run-scoring groundout in the fourth, and Kipnis singled in a run in the fifth to make it 4-0. Damon homered in the seventh off Maikel Cleto, Damon’s second this season.

“It was a slider that was up,” Damon said. “I was surprised that I hit it that far.”

— Associated Press —