CLEVELAND — The Indians didn’t generate a lot of offense — surprise, surprise — but they did do enough to get a much-needed win Monday night at Progressive Field.

Entering a game in third place for the first time all season, the Indians mustered a couple timely hits, then let their pitching do the rest to help them to a 2-1 victory in the opener of a four-game series with Oakland.

Cleveland, which won for just the fourth time in 11 games, remained in third place a half game behind the White Sox. But the Indians did gain ground on the first-place Tigers, who they trail by 5 1/2 games in the Central Division standings.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the first game (of the series),” right fielder Kosuke Fukudome said through an interpreter. Fukudome delivered the Indians’ first key hit, a two-out RBI double to score the game’s first run in the sixth inning. “I think we just need to win every single game. We can’t worry about what other teams are doing.”

As long as they keep getting pitching performances like they did Monday, the Indians might not have to.

Pitching for the first time in nine days, Indians starter David Huff was a bit rusty, tossing 43 pitches over the first three innings. But the left-hander worked through it to offer up an effective outing, logging six scoreless innings, while allowing just three hits and striking out four.

Huff had runners aboard in each of the first three innings but pitched out of it before finding a groove that saw him retire 10 straight, beginning with the last two outs of the third. He had runners on first and second in the sixth before getting Brandon Allen to ground out to end the inning.

“David started laboring a little bit,” Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. “I didn’t think he was going to go that far. But he righted himself up and he was very aggressive in the zone with his fastball and his cutter.”

Huff, 2-2 with a 2.08 ERA in six games (five starts) admitted to being rusty at the outset, but he continued to show a penchant for working out of jams that hasn’t been on display during the first two years of his career.

“Early, the balls were up and they were fouling them off,” Huff said. “Later on the ball got down and they weren’t fouling it off anymore. They were pounding it into the ground.”

Huff’s effort was backed by another quality performance from Cleveland’s bullpen, which allowed a run in the eighth, but kept the inning from getting any larger after the A’s produced consecutive doubles to start the inning.

Left-hander Tony Sipp, who allowed the RBI double to Jemile Weeks, got the first out on Coco Crisp’s ill-fated sacrifice bunt attempt that did not advance Weeks to third, then got the second out on a drive to warning track in right field.

Sipp was replaced by Vinnie Pestano, who struck out Oakland cleanup hitter Josh Willingham with Weeks on third.

Closer Chris Perez retired the side in order to get his 30th save of the season in 34 chances. The right-hander struck out the first two batters, ending the game by getting Kurt Suzuki to pop up.

The Indians matched the A’s with five hits on the night, but they got the biggest one when Carlos Santana clouted a solo home run with one out in the seventh off Oakland starter Brandon McCarthy.

McCarthy probably deserved a better fate, outlasting Huff to pitch eight innings and allow just two runs on five hits while striking out 10.

“We couldn’t do much against McCarthy,” Acta said. “But we got some clutch hits.”

Despite owning just a .242 batting average, Santana has been one of Cleveland’s more productive hitters all year. He is second on the team to All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera with 20 homers and 64 RBIs, while leading the club in walks (77) and on-base percentage (.350).

Santana has been hot as of late, hitting .304 (28-for-92) with five homers and 16 RBIs over his last 23 games.

“In a way he hasn’t met people’s expectations,” Acta said of Santana, a highly-touted offensive weapon when his first full season in the majors began this year. “But if you’re a person that’s not always looking at batting average, he’s had an impressive year.”

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Fan him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.