The Indians used a squeeze bunt Monday to score the winning run in the sixth inning of a 2-1 victory over the Blue Jays at Progressive Field.

Jayson Nix dropped down the bunt and Travis Hafner scored from third.

Jake Westbrook got the win, allowing just a run on six hits over six innings.

CINCINNATI (AP) – Breaking ball? Gone. Change-up? Gone, too. A pair of fastballs? Shin-Soo Choo clobbered those just as well.

The outfielder provided Cleveland’s few bright moments in an intrastate series that won’t be remembered for much else.

Choo homered twice off Bronson Arroyo – the second time he’s done it this season – and the Indians ended their seven-game losing streak on Sunday, beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 right after they started playing for next year.

The Indians traded power hitter Russell Branyan to Seattle for a pair of prospects before the game, conceding this season is a lost cause. Then Choo gave them a brief respite from their misery.

“I feel good about stopping the losing streak,” Choo said.

He hit a solo homer in the first and a three-run shot in the fifth off Arroyo (7-4), who can’t seem to get him out. Choo also homered twice off Arroyo on May 21 during Cincinnati’s 7-4 win in Cleveland. The four homers have come off a breaking ball, a change-up and a pair of fastballs.

“Matchups in this game are strange sometimes,” Arroyo said. “Obviously, he’s confident against me. Four home runs in two games is outstanding.”

Despite the loss, Cincinnati remained a half-game ahead of St. Louis in the NL Central. The Cardinals lost to Kansas City 10-3 on Sunday. It’s the latest in a season the Reds have been in first place since 1999.

Rookie Mitch Talbot (8-6) held the NL’s most prolific lineup to three singles over seven innings. Talbot is one of the AL’s best pitchers on the road, a trend that held when he crossed leagues. He retired 12 in a row over one stretch.

Just what the shaken Indians needed to break that losing streak.

“Maybe the night before, you think you really need to do what you can to get that win,” Talbot said. “Maybe you can break something up.”

Chris Perez gave up a two-run homer by Joey Votto in the eighth, cutting it to 5-3. Kerry Wood struck out the side in the ninth for his sixth save in nine tries.

Now, their manager can get a clean shave for the first time since the losing streak began. He’d been putting it off until they won a game.

It took a week.

“First off, I get to shave my salt-and-pepper goatee,” manager Manny Acta said.

The rare Indians win – only their second in 13 games – completed a dismal interleague showing. Cleveland went 5-13 this year against NL teams, including 2-4 against the intrastate rival Reds. Cincinnati has dominated the series lately, going 13-5 over the past three years.

Things are so bad that the Indians already started looking to next year and beyond. They traded Branyan for prospects and called up first baseman Matt LaPorta, who will play every day as part of his development. Catching prospect Carlos Santana, who was called up June 11, added a solo homer on Sunday.

Outfielder Michael Brantley – acquired two years ago in the CC Sabathia trade along with LaPorta – will likely get promoted soon to establish his career.

“Becoming younger – we won’t shy away from it,” Acta said. “The kids need to keep going hard and continue to learn at this level. This is never the easiest level to learn, but good times are coming.”

Cleveland has the third-worst record in the majors only three years after it lost to Boston in the AL Championship Series. The Indians are on pace to lose 100 games for the first time since 1991, when they were playing at Cleveland Stadium.

Choo provided a one-day respite with his fifth career multihomer game. He’s 6-for-12 in his career off Arroyo with four homers and a pair of doubles.

“He has Bronson’s number,” manager Dusty Baker said. “It was all Talbot and Choo today.”

LORAIN — A little over 60,000 people attended the Lorain International Festival bazaar this weekend, according to bazaar coordinator Ralph Bruening.

The number was far below what he’d hoped — 85,000 to 90,000 — and he blamed that on the weather, particularly on Sunday, when he said attendance was only 9,000 to 10,000.

“Normally after the parade, the crowd just moves over here,” he said. This year, likely due to the stifling heat, that didn’t happen.

The heat was only broken up by brief rain showers and eventually a big thunderstorm about 5 p.m.

But rain, thunder and lightning couldn’t deter many of the festival-goers, who crowded into the beer tent or huddled under awnings until the worst had passed.

More photos below.

One of those hardy festival-goers was Honey Walorz, 90, from the Boston area. Walorz, who moved from Lorain more than 50 years ago, has come back for the festival each year for the past 28.

For each trip, she’s accompanied by a different assortment of family members. Eleven children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied her this year. Besides International Festival, she makes it a point to visit her parents’ graves.

When asked what they’d had to eat, family members responded in unison: “Everything!”

“Between yesterday and today, we have tried just about every booth out,” said Sue MacAllister, 57, of Plymouth, Mass., Walorz’s daughter.

“We definitely make it a point to go to the Hungarian booth because we are Hungarian,” added Sara MacAllister, 29, of Weymouth, Mass., Walorz’s granddaughter. “We make it a point to have the stuffed cabbage and the dumplings. It’s a treat because we don’t make it at home as much.”

For all those years Walorz has been coming to International Festival, Dave Zanoni, who moved to Florida, had been missing out. He made his first time back to the festival in nearly three decades count, though. He started a “Back to Lorain” effort in hopes of making this year’s festival a massive community reunion, and he estimates he convinced several thousand people to make the trip.

“Since a lot of people left Lorain, unfortunately, it’s a good chance to get everybody together, come on back to the great city, bring your family, meet up with old friends and just have a good time,” he said. “It seemed like a lot of people turned out, and I think they had a good time, because, I tell you what, I had a really good time, and my wife had a really good time.”

Zanoni said his week back in Lorain also included several impromptu reunion gatherings and his first tour of the Lorain lighthouse.

Lorain police Sgt. Mark Carpentiere said the festival went smoothly from his perspective.

“It’s gone really well,” he said. “We’ve had no major incidents. We’ve got a lot of officers working out here along with our patrol division and traffic division.”

He said there was one arrest for a “very minor” domestic violence incident and a couple alcohol-related problems that didn’t lead to any arrests.

A first-time effort to wrist-band everyone over 21 who wants to consume alcohol went well, according to Cathy Gabe of Communities that Care of Lorain County.

People embraced the concept, Gabe said, and at least 5,000 wristbands were handed out over the festival’s three days.

“What we’re hoping is this becomes the wave of the future for festivals in Lorain County that serve alcohol,” Gabe said. “If you go, this is just something you expect.”

Food sales reports varied depending on who you asked among the festival’s vendors.

At the Midway Oh-Boy booth, owner Dave Disbrow said this year’s festival was a big disappointment. He said he went through 21 boxes of 40 hamburger patties to make his famous Oh-Boy burgers, but he’d hoped to sell twice that. He blamed the economy and the weather.

The popular Hungarian booth reported running out of dinners by 8 p.m. Friday and by 3 p.m. Sunday had only stuffed cabbage left. They cut the cost of those from $2 to $1 for a cabbage roll or a dozen for $10, and moved the rest quickly.

At the Polish booth run by Kiedrowski’s Bakery, the top-sellers, as always were the snoogles, which are foot-long pastries. Booth workers didn’t have hard numbers, but estimated they gone through at least 200 or 300 dozen.

Christian Tabernacle Church sold 4,000 pastellilos at their Puerto Rican booth and went through 262 pounds of rice and 220 pounds of beans.

This year’s festival saw an expanded kids area, featuring nine inflatable “bouncy” attractions and “happy meals” for $3.

Nina Woolridge, Lorain International treasurer, said the idea is to get more families with kids to come to the festival and to stay longer once they’re there.

“Sometimes it’s hard to give a kid chicken paprikas or chicken on a stick or a gyro,” Woolridge explained. The “happy meals” consisted of a hot dog or chicken nuggets, potato chips, fruit snacks and a drink.

“Last year everyone was really happy about all the rides, and this year the cafe has really made people say, ‘Wow, this is really good,’ ” Woolridge said. “We had a guy come up here yesterday with four kids, and he was like ‘Wow, I can feed all four of my kids for $12? How good is that?’ ”

Woolridge said the kids cafe served 200 meals over the weekend, and 1,600 kids rode the rides.

Parade chairwoman Andrea Miceli called this year’s parade “one of the best we’ve hosted in years.”

Roy Church, president of spotlight industry Lorain County Community College, was grand marshal, and John Peters and Magda Koos, two pillars of the Lorain Hungarian community, were honorary grand marshals.

More than 1,000 people participated in the parade, which was about an hour and a half long. The Hungarian float took first place for nationality float, Key Bank won for business float, and Lorain County Community College was first for organization float.

The parade was also the first chance for the community to see the new Lorain High Titan marching band. The band practiced together for the first time Wednesday and is coming together nicely so far, according to band director Tim Sivik.

Bret Schuster, Lorain’s Ward 4 councilman and booth chairman for the festival bazaar, called this year’s festival “excellent.”

“Couldn’t say anything better,” he said. “This is one of the better years that we’ve had, and it has been absolutely marvelous.”

How was this year’s festival from the perspective of Zanoni, who hadn’t been to it in about 27 years?

“The food’s still the same, and it’s still hot and a great atmosphere and really nice people,” he said.

CINCINNATI (AP) – The shiny Ohio Cup will stay in the southern part of the state for another year – not that Cincinnati really cares all that much.

The first-place Reds have much grander trophies in mind.

Laynce Nix singled home the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning Saturday night and came around to score on a jarring dive into home, rallying the Reds to their fifth straight win, 6-4 over the Cleveland Indians.

Nix’s single off Justin Masterson (2-7) was the turning point to a ragged game on a hot, humid night. Cincinnati held on for its fourth victory in five games this season against its free-falling intrastate rival.

“I don’t think we don’t put too much stock in the Ohio Cup,” Nix said. “We want to win this game. But it’s better to win (the trophy) than not.”

They’re on a nice little surge.

Cincinnati has moved back into first place in the NL Central, a half-game ahead of St. Louis. The Reds haven’t been in first so late in a season since 1999, the last time they made a serious run at the postseason. They lost a one-game playoff to the Mets that year for the NL wild card.

In that context, beating the Indians is secondary stuff.

“The bigger thing is returning to first place,” manager Dusty Baker said.

Cleveland is marooned in last. The Indians have lost a season-high seven in a row and 11 of 12, falling a season-low 21 games under .500. They have the third-worst record in the majors at 26-47, on pace to lose 100 games only three years after they won the AL Central and came within one victory of the World Series.

“We may not be as talented as some teams, so we have to do the little things,” Masterson said.

They don’t do those very well.

Masterson committed his fifth error on a pickoff throw – the Indians lead the AL with 56 of them – and threw a pair of wild pitches while giving up a 3-1 lead. The Indians also had a runner caught in a rundown between second and third on a botched steal attempt.

Ugly all around.

Reds rookie starter Sam LeCure faded fast on a sticky, 88-degree evening with no breeze, failing to make it through the fourth inning. Pitchers regularly worked deep into counts, struggling to keep their hands dry so they could get a grip on their pitches.

“I think it was more the humidity than the heat,” LeCure said. “A couple of balls slipped a little bit.”

Daniel Ray Herrera (1-3) got the final out in the sixth. Left-hander Arthur Rhodes pitched the seventh, tying a major league record with his 33rd straight scoreless appearance. Francisco Cordero gave up a two-out RBI single by Austin Kearns in the ninth before fanning Shelley Duncan for his 20th save in 25 tries.

The Reds have dominated the intrastate rivalry in the last three years, going 13-4.

The game drew 37,757 fans, some of whom tried to start a wave during the top of the sixth inning to amuse themselves. It ended fast – much too hot to move around.

Then, Nix got them on their feet.

His single put the Reds up 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth. He eventually scored from third on Miguel Cairo’s sacrifice fly, going headfirst into the plate behind catcher Carlos Santana, who had to move to get the throw. Nix expected him to block the plate and planned to go in hard.

“I was ready,” he said.

Santana was back in the lineup a day after he jammed his left thumb and left Cincinnati’s 10-3 win. Santana doubled home a run in the first inning. Anderson Hernandez doubled home two more in the fourth off LeCure, who lasted only 3 1/3 innings – the shortest of his six starts – while giving up six hits and four walks.

NOTES: The Reds lead the series 35-33. … Cleveland is 4-13 in interleague play this season. Cincinnati is 8-6. … Indians 2B Jayson Nix and Reds LF Laynce Nix started together in a big league game for the first time. They’re one of eight sets of brothers currently in the majors. The Indians claimed Jayson Nix off waivers from the White Sox on Thursday. … Masterson singled in the second inning for his first big league hit.