CLEVELAND -- A playoff contender in September, the Indians drew their largest crowd in almost a month and gave fans something to cheer about. Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Cleveland leads Texas by a half-game for the ALs second wild card. The Indians, who have won eight of their last 10, trail Tampa Bay by a half-game for the wild-card lead. "Theres nothing like that atmosphere," Nick Swisher said. "Weve got to keep winning, but Im telling you, man, when you have fan support like that its so easy to get up for games. Were so happy everybody showed up and everybody had a great time." Swisher, who scored a run, had a hit and walked twice, picked up the tab for a postgame fireworks show. Despite being in the playoff race, Cleveland went into Saturday 14th among AL teams in attendance at 19,317, ahead of only Tampa Bay (18,457), according to STATS. Saturdays crowd of 26,611 was the Indians largest at home since 26,870 watched a game against Minnesota on Aug. 24. "It was really welcome," manager Terry Francona said. "I think players probably appreciate that. There was a little extra energy tonight. This time of year that cant hurt anybody." Swisher and several teammates tossed miniature baseballs into the stands following the game. The Indians passed Texas with Fridays rain-shortened 2-1 win, moving into a wild-card spot for the first time since before play on Aug. 5. Following Sundays series finale, Cleveland hosts the Chicago White Sox for two games before closing the regular season with four games at Minnesota. "As close as we are, we can almost taste it," Kazmir said. "So you want to go out and give it everything youve got." Francona has a simple philosophy when it comes to dealing with a playoff chase. "When we win, were fine, when we lose, you hope," he said. "Its not do or die. Its do, or it hurts." Houston, a major league-worst 51-104, is on a season-high eight-game losing streak and has totalled just 12 runs during the skid. Houston is three losses from matching the club record set last season. The Astros scored when Chris Carter homered against Joe Smith with two outs in the ninth. Kazmir (9-9) struck out 10 and walked two. He had been 1-5 with a 5.82 ERA in his previous seven starts. He gave up Jonathan Villars single to start the game, then included a double-play grounder from Jose Altuve and didnt allow another runner until a single opening the fifth by Carter, who had three hits. Kazmir, who was pitching for the Sugar Land Skeeters in an independent league last season, has far exceeded the Indians expectations. "This is exciting," Francona said. "Knowing Kaz, the bigger the game, hes not going to shy away from that." "You definitely have to tip your hat to Kazmir tonight," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "He had an explosive fastball and did a tremendous job with his breakaway stuff." Cody Allen relieved following to L.J. Hoes leadoff double in the eighth. Brantleys home run capped Clevelands three-run first inning. Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall also drove in runs for Cleveland. Paul Clemens (4-6) allowed four runs in 4 2-3 innings in his fourth start of the season after making 30 appearances out of the bullpen. NOTES: Francona said RHP Justin Masterson (strained left oblique) likely will throw a simulated game Sunday or Monday. Its possible Masterson, who left his start against Baltimore on Sept. 2 in the second inning, will be ready to pitch in relief before the regular season ends. ... Francona said he contacted Boston manager John Farrell after the Red Sox clinched the AL East on Friday night. Farrell was Bostons pitching coach during Franconas tenure as manager and the two are friends. ... Astros 3B Matt Dominguez (left hand) returned to the lineup after sitting out one game. He was struck on the left hand Thursday by a pitch from Indians RHP Chris Perez. "Matt said its still a little sore, but hes a pretty tough guy," Porter said. Dominguez was hitless in four at-bats. ... Astros LHP Erik Bedard (4-11) takes on Indians RHP Corey Kluber (9-5) in the four-game series finale Sunday. wholesale nfl jerseys china . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. wholesale jerseys . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. http://www.wholesalejerseysdeals.u... . - Levi Browns tenure at left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers is over before it even began. [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysdeals.us.com/]wholesale jerseys china . -- Linebacker Myles Jack ran for four touchdowns, defensive end Cassius Marsh caught a scoring pass, and No.LONDON -- The IOC is using an improved steroid test to reanalyze frozen doping samples from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and may use the same method to conduct retests from the 2008 Beijing Games. The tests can detect steroid use going further back than ever before and in lower concentrations, IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Its a natural development of the methodology," he said, adding that the test increases the chances of catching drug cheats who went undetected at the time. The International Olympic Committee announced in March that it would retest Turin samples, just as it rechecked samples from the 2004 and 2008 Summer Games in Athens and Beijing -- catching 10 dopers retroactively. The IOC stores Olympic samples for eight years to allow for retesting if new methods become available. The Turin retesting involves a wider detection window, possibly going back as much as six months or more after steroids were taken. "The IOC is currently retesting some of the samples collected during the Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 and we can confirm that we are using the new long-term metabolites method to detect anabolic steroids," the IOC said in a statement. The method will also be used in the drug-testing program at Februarys Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. According to a weekend report by German broadcaster ARD, doping labs in Cologne and Moscow using then new method have detected hundreds of positive cases in recent months. The report said the substances included oral turinabol, a steroid widely used in the former East Germany, and stanozolol, the drug which led to Ben Johnsons disqualification at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Ljungqvist said he had no independent information on the contents of the ARD report, suggesting the cases may have involved "very old samples" tested for research purposes. "Its nothing that we have initiated," he said. Meanwhile, Ljungqvist said the IOC expects to have the results of the Turin tests by the end of the year. The tests are looking for steroids, new generations of the blood-booster EPO and growth hormone, he told the AP in a telephone interview. Urine and blood samples from Turin are stored at the doping laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. The exact number of retests is not known, but Ljungqvist said the IOC had identified "a couple of hundred" samples for possible reanalysis. Endurance events such as cross-country skiing are considered the most open to doping abuse. The IOC wants to wrap up the testing process, including any sanctions, before the Sochi Games, which begin Feb. 7. In 2010, the IOC reanalyzed some Turin samplees for insulin and blood-booster CERA but all came back negative.dddddddddddd. The IOC decided a few months ago to test more samples before the eight-year deadline runs out in February 2014. Only one positive case was recorded during the Turin Games -- Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant. But Turin was hit by a major doping scandal when Italian police -- acting on a tip-off from the IOC -- raided the lodgings of the Austrian cross-country and biathlon team, seizing blood-doping equipment. While no Austrian athletes tested positive at the time, four later received life bans from the IOC. Last year, the IOC retested samples from the Athens Olympics and caught five athletes who were retroactively stripped of medals for using steroids, including mens shot put winner Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. Previously, retests of samples from Beijing for CERA led to five positive cases -- with Bahrain runner Rashid Ramzi stripped of gold in the 1,500 metres. Ljungqvist said more Beijing samples could now be retested using the improved steroid test. While the samples that have already been retested no longer exist, many others remain. "We can go back to Beijing before 2016," Ljungqvist said. "We may do that. We havent decided yet. We will do it as the eight-year time approaches." Under newly approved global rules, the statute of limitations in doping cases will be increased to 10 years starting in 2015. On a separate issue, Ljungqvist said he was confident the Russian lab assigned to test doping samples in Sochi will be ready for the games, despite a threat of sanctions from the World Anti-Doping Agency. On Sunday, WADA gave the lab until Dec. 1 to start reforms to improve the reliability of its results, or face a six-month suspension. The Moscow lab is due to set up a "satellite" facility in Sochi for the Olympics. "We interpret the WADA decision as if we will have the Moscow lab available," Ljungqvist said. "We take that for granted. They (the Russians) will of course fulfil the requirements established in the decision to make sure they have the proper procedures in place. We are feeling pretty confident." If the lab fails to come up to scratch, the Sochi samples would have to be sent to another lab outside Russia for testing, posing logistical and financial issues. "Of course, we have to have a Plan B, but the Plan B is not attractive," Ljungqvist said. "That would be to send samples out of Russia. We have to find a lab which wishes to do that and Im not sure what labs may wish to do that. Its quite risky with transport and all that." cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '