NEW YORK — Pitch by pitch, Carlos Carrasco was getting himself into serious trouble. A single by Derek Jeter. Another by Curtis Granderson. A walk to Mark Teixeira.

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco throws to the New York Yankees in the first inning. (AP photo.)

Bases loaded, no outs, first inning, Yankee Stadium, Alex Rodriguez up. And then a most curious thing happened Monday night, for Carrasco and the Cleveland Indians.

Rodriguez hit a medium-depth fly and center fielder Michael Brantley caught it, seemingly ready to concede the run. But as Brantley held the ball, Jeter hesitated and never broke for home.

“I kind of say to Michael, ‘You’re not throwing the ball! Throw it! Throw it!’” Carrasco said.

Carrasco (6-3) went on to shut out New York for seven innings, pitching five-hit ball while striking out seven and walking three as the Indians won 1-0.

The Yankees certainly had their chances at the start against him — of their first 14 batters, seven reached base. The 24-year-old righty set down 13 of his last 14.

“I thought that Carrasco gave us a terrific pick-me-up,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He started shaky with a lot of traffic out there, but I can’t say enough about the job that he did.”

Four innings later, Jeter took one step out of the batter’s box and clearly was in trouble. Noticeably limping, he left with a Grade 1 strain of his right calf. He has 2,994 career hits — the Yankees said they would determine the next step today, and they hope it’s not a trip to the disabled list.

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“I’m worried about him,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Just keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it’s not too serious.”

The Indians had lost four in a row overall and were able to avoid a four-game sweep in the Bronx. They handed New York its first 1-0 loss in the three-season history of new Yankee Stadium.

Cleveland held its slim lead over Detroit in the AL Central going into a three-game series against the Tigers starting Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

Acta shuffled his batting order, putting Carlos Santana, Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera into lineup spots where they’d never hit before. The Indians had totaled only 21 runs while losing nine of 10, and managed to scratch out just enough to win.

“It’s just a matter of getting a couple more guys involved in our offense like we were a couple of weeks ago,” Acta said.

Brantley tripled off the glove of diving right fielder Nick Swisher in the fourth and Cabrera bounced an RBI single to left field. That go-ahead grounder stopped the Indians’ 0-for-20 drought with runners in scoring position.

Carrasco won for the fifth time in six starts. At the beginning, it looked as if he might not make it out of the first inning.

“I was hoping he would get out of it, because if he doesn’t make it through the fifth inning, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to put our bullpen in a tough spot going into Detroit,” Acta said.

“But that was the inning of the game, basically,” he said.

Acta said he didn’t figure Brantley was baiting Jeter by double-clutching before making a throw.

“I think Michael was just trying to make sure that if Granderson went to third, he would throw the ball to third. There’s no deking. I mean, you have to get the ball back into the infield,” he said. “Actually, it was kind of a weird play. We were kind of screaming from the dugout, ‘Just throw the ball in. Throw the ball in.’ For some reason, he didn’t throw the ball very well.”

Tony Sipp got two outs in the eighth, retiring Teixeira on a flyball up against the right-center wall, and reliever Vinnie Pestano ended the inning. Chris Perez struck out the side in the ninth for his 16th save in 17 chances.

Girardi said he thought Jeter was merely being cautious in the first inning. Perez, meanwhile, was wondering how Carrasco would escape.

“That first inning set him up for the rest of the game. That was huge. The first three guys get on and you’re facing A-Rod and nobody out and the bases loaded and gets out of that without any runs,” Perez said.

“I think it’s a big step in his career, actually,” he added.

A.J. Burnett (6-5) rebounded from a battering by Boston and took the hard-luck loss. He gave up five hits in 7 2-3 innings, walked one and struck out eight.

Notable

• Major League Baseball said it is still reviewing whether Cleveland RHP Mitch Talbot should be penalized for plunking Rodriguez on Saturday.
• Indians slugger Travis Hafner (strained right oblique) will begin a rehab assignment at Double-A Akron on Tuesday if he feels OK.
• The Yankees’ previous 1-0 home loss was Aug. 1, 2008, against the Angels.

CT photo by Rona Proudfoot.

PITTSFIELD TWP. — The Ohio Highway Patrol has identified Sandra Linden, 55, of Norwalk as the woman who was killed in a five-vehicle crash on state Route 20 today.

Rescue squads were called to the scene, just west of Quarry Road, about 8 a.m.

Five vehicles were involved — a Nash Finch Co. food hauling semi truck, a tan Ford pickup truck, a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, a tan Ford passenger car and a gray minivan.

According to Sgt. Cross with the Highway Patrol, Linden, who was driving the gray minivan, went left of center, into the path of the semi. The semi attempted to swerve and struck the other three vehicles.

The semi then burst into flames and was fully engulfed when Wellington fire crews arrived on the scene, according to Wellington fire Lt. Bill Brown.

See Wednesday’s edition of The Chronicle for more.

ELYRIA — Her nickname was “Tam Tom,” and she was the go-to person whenever a youth at Chestnut Ridge Baptist Church needed help.

Danielle Tomasheski and her father, Thomas Tomasheski.

In fact, volunteer youth leader Tammy Tomasheski was so trusted that she was the only adult welcomed into a clique of teenage boys who met to talk about their problems.

“It was man talk plus Tammy — the guys in our youth group are crazy and we needed somebody to talk to and it was always Tammy,” said J.D. Myers, 17. “She was the sweetest person.”

J.D. and his parents, the Rev. J. Darrell Myers and his wife, Laura, on Monday remembered 36-year-old Tammy Tomasheski and her 11-year-old son Tom Tomasheski III, who were killed in a crash Saturday that also severely injured her husband, 38-year-old Lorain County sheriff’s Cpl. Thomas Brian Tomasheski and their 13-year-old daughter Danielle Tomasheski.

Thomas Tomasheski and the driver of the other car, Gerald Wetherbee, 35, of Oberlin, were in critical condition Monday night at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, while Danielle Tomasheski was in critical condition at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

Tammy Tomasheski and her son, Tom Tomasheski III, in a family photo.

The church community is following the progress of medical treatment for Tom and Danielle, who have multiple internal injuries, while struggling to understand what happened, Darrell Myers said.

They also are praying for Wetherbee, although J.D. said he is struggling with it because Wetherbee is suspected of drunken driving in the crash.

“He’s taken something very precious from us,” J.D. said.

Danielle is a softball player and will be an eighth-grader in the Midview Schools. Tommy, who would have been a sixth-grader at Midview East Elementary School, was athletic — just like his dad and sister — and was remembered for his laugh and shock of bushy hair. He played baseball, football and basketball.

Both adults and Danielle sustained fractured pelvises and Thomas Tomasheski sustained broken legs and a shattered ankle, Myers said.

“There was some talk early on of having a leg amputated, but they have pinned his leg back together and got a pulse back in his foot so that’s good news,” he said.

Myers said Danielle suffered a fractured vertebra and other internal injuries.

“They woke her up enough to see she had movement,” Myers said. “She’s moving the right side, but not the left — it might have something to do with swelling on her brain.”

Funeral arrangements are incomplete for the Valley City family but will be handled by Bauer Laubenthal Funeral Home, Myers said.

He said he is struggling to find the words to comfort his flock and the community mourning the loss of Tammy and Tommy Tomasheski, even though it is hard to see anything but “the darkness of this moment.”

“Scripture tells us that God can work all things for good,” Myers said.

“They weren’t just good church folks, they were fantastic community folks,” Myers said. “Tom coached softball, baseball and football, and Tammy was involved in Midview North (school activities) and Midview softball and baseball and was the treasurer of Midview Youth Football League.”

Whenever any of the youth at the church were involved in any activities, whether it be school plays or sports, Tom Tomasheski was there with his camera and would give that teen a disc full of photos.

The Myers family learned of the crash while they were at a wedding in North Carolina that the Tomasheskis had also been planning to attend.

Before Laura Myers left, she asked Tammy to ride along in their van, but Tammy stood firm.

“They absolutely adored each other and I couldn’t get her to go without him,” Laura Myers said.

The couple met while attending Midview High — Tom graduating in 1991 and Tammy in 1993 — and married in 1995.

Tammy worked at a doctor’s office in Sheffield and as an office manager for a trucking company, according to family members.

She is survived by her parents, Vicky and Richard Roche, a brother, Daniel, and a large extended family.

While the Myers family was out of town, other church members rushed to hospitals after the crash including Keystone High graduate Calab Wagner.

Wagner, 18, said the Tomasheskis helped him get his life back on track when his grades and behavior slipped and he was ineligible for football his junior year.

“Tom and Tammy were my rock,” Wagner said. “Every Friday night, Tom and I would pick a different game to go watch and I honestly don’t know where I would be without him.”

Now Wagner is going to Defiance College on a scholarship to play tight end for the football team and power forward for the basketball team.

In addition to their family and church family, members of the Sheriff’s Office family also are spending lots of time at the two hospitals doing what they can to provide solace to a grieving family.

Lt. Jack Hammond said he is very worried about his co-worker, whom he called “an emerging leader” in the Sheriff’s Office.

Cpl. Tomasheski’s father, also named Thomas Tomasheski, was a longtime sheriff’s deputy, retiring in 2001 with the rank of sergeant, and Hammond said father and son are very similar in appearance and dedication to the job.

The elder Tomasheski plans to speak publicly about what has happened in the coming days, Chief Deputy Dennis Cavanaugh said.

The Sheriff’s Office does not know if Cpl. Tomasheski and his daughter know what happened to their loved ones, Cavanaugh said.

“The family’s going to have to find its own way to let them know,” Cavanaugh said. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

In the meantime, Cavanaugh said the Sheriff’s Office will be there for Cpl. Tomasheski, who works as a supervisor at the Lorain County Jail.

“We hope for a speedy recovery for him and his daughter,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re one big family.”

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Gerald Wetherbee shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of the Kia Optima that smashed into a Honda Civic on Saturday night, a crash that killed two people and critically injured Wetherbee and two others.

Wetherbee

Wetherbee’s driver’s license has been suspended since November because he hasn’t made court-ordered child support payments, according to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Wetherbee, 35, of Oberlin, was listed in serious condition Monday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. The two other survivors of the accident on state Route 83 in Grafton, Tom Tomasheski, a 38-year-old corporal with the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, and his 13-year-old daughter Danielle Tomasheski, were listed as critical in Cleveland hospitals.

Killed in the crash were Tomasheski’s 36-year-old wife, Tammy Tomasheski, and his 11-year-old son Tom Tomasheski III.

Ohio Highway Patrol troopers have said that Wetherbee’s northbound car veered off the right side of the road before crossing the center line and hitting the southbound Honda. The crash remains under investigation.

Wetherbee, whom troopers suspect may have been drinking, hasn’t been charged in connection with Saturday’s fatal crash, but he isn’t a stranger to law enforcement.

Not only does Wetherbee have two prior DUI convictions — one in 1999 and another in 2000 — he also is a registered sex offender with a history of crimes of violence, drugs, theft and forgery.

Wetherbee has been on parole since he was released from prison last May after serving a five-year sentence on charges of gross sexual imposition and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.

In that case, Wetherbee was accused of sexually molesting an 8-year-old girl he knew with a candle he’d carved and sexual lubricant in 2005, according to court documents.

Wetherbee told Elyria police that he had given the girl the candle to use as a sexual aid but denied that he had used it to molest her, according to a summary of his interview with a detective in the case.

He also told the detective that he is routinely aroused during normal activity, including while “driving his car,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Wetherbee’s only conviction in the year he’s been on parole — according to court records in Lorain County — came in April in Oberlin Municipal Court, when he paid $150 in fines and costs for dumping trash in a state area.

Wetherbee has had prior stints in prison for a domestic violence conviction in 2002 — he violated the conditions of his parole and was later returned to prison to serve additional time in that case — and for criminal nonsupport in 2005, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.

JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, said parole officers will likely wait to see what happens with the crash investigation before deciding whether Wetherbee violated his current parole status.

Failure to pay child support to his two children had landed Wetherbee in trouble with the court system again recently. During a May appearance in county Domestic Relations Court, he was ordered to begin paying some of the $6,987 in back child support he owed at the time or be held in contempt of court.

Tina Keith, Wetherbee’s ex-wife — who was listed as the victim in domestic violence cases in the court records — had sought and received a divorce while he was serving time in the sex case.

In one of those cases, Wetherbee’s mother, Christine Wetherbee, noted in a witness statement that her son and his friend got drunk and wouldn’t let Keith and her children leave.

“My son has a problem,” she wrote. “He really needs (professional) help.”

In another case, Wetherbee was accused of choking Keith when she refused to drive him from Lorain to Oberlin.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.