CLEVELAND—Fausto Carmona threw a 92 mph sinking fastball that appeared to nip the far corner of the strike zone. Manny Ramirez did not swing, and home plate umpire Ed Rapuano did not call it a strike. In such instances, the star slugger often gets the benefit of the doubt.

So Carmona smiled, grabbed the ball again and fired a 96 mph fastball that clearly hit the corner of the strike zone. Ramirez watched it whiz past and immediately dropped his bat and helmet. The kid left no doubt.

Carmona has been one of the pillars of a fractured Indians rotation all season, and he has never been better than in his past two starts, including a 1-0 win over Ramirez and the Red Sox last night in Jacobs Field.

Carmona limited the Sox to four singles in eight innings. Five days earlier, he pitched eight scoreless innings against the Texas Rangers in Rangers Ballpark, one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the big leagues. He has thrown 18 consecutive scoreless innings, dating to an outing July 15 against Kansas City, and he is now tied for the major-league lead with 13 wins.

"He's unbelievable," second baseman Josh Barfield said. "If you sit in the dugout and just watch him and don't look at the scoreboard, you'd think he was throwing splitters and sliders, the way the ball's breaking. Then you look at the (radar) gun and it's 96, 97, all fastballs. I have no idea how guys get hits off him."

It is a remarkable turnaround from a year ago, when Carmona suffered three straight blown saves in a short-lived and potentially scarring stint as the closer, including two losses to the Red Sox in Fenway Park. He admitted thinking about those losses before taking the mound last night.

"I knew I had to bear down and go after them because of what happened last year," Carmona said through a translator, first-base coach Luis Rivera.

The Red Sox did not get their first hit until one out into the sixth inning, on an infield single by former Indian Coco Crisp. Moments later, Crisp was thrown out at home plate while trying to score from second base on an infield single.

Barfield fielded the ball and alertly looked for Crisp, because he knew he did not have a chance to throw out the batter. Catcher Victor Martinez blocked the plate with a foot, caught the one-hop throw from Barfield and tagged Crisp.

"That's the difference between a playoff team and a nonplayoff team," Barfield said.

Martinez also threw out two runners trying to steal second base in the eighth, including Julio Lugo to end the inning, which prompted emphatic fist pumps from Martinez and Carmona. Earlier in the game, shortstop Jhonny Peralta snared a hard-hit grounder up the middle and began a double play. Franklin Gutierrez accounted for the only run with a homer off Red Sox starter Josh Beckett. Closer Joe Borowski finished the game with a perfect ninth against the top three hitters in a dangerous lineup.

Carmona took care of the rest. He struck out six, and the Red Sox hit only three balls beyond the infield.

"You can't say enough about that young man," manager Eric Wedge said. "He's been about as valuable as anyone to this club."

spriestle@dispatch.com