"I listened to some music," reliever Matt Herges said. "Some guys napped. The tough thing is you really just want to eat, and that's not good."

When the tarp was pulled to resume play in the bottom of the fourth inning, it was all about the bullpens, as both starters had gone cold. And for the Indians, it was the relief provided by Jensen Lewis, Herges, Rafael Betancourt and Kerry Wood that allowed them to finish off a 2-1 victory and a four-game sweep of the Rays.

Between an injury to Anthony Reyes, rough starts from David Huff (on Saturday), Fausto Carmona and Zach Jackson, and the rain that forced Huff out of action in an otherwise solid start in this game, the Tribe's bullpen has been working overtime the past week. And for the first time all season, the 'pen is rising to the challenge.

"We've been pushing that bullpen, and they're doing a good job," manager Eric Wedge said. "They need to feel good about how they're performing as a unit down there."

The success of a bullpen and the success of a ballclub so often run hand-in-hand. It's no coincidence, then, that the Indians are finally putting together a sustained run of success. They achieved their first three-game winning streak of the season with Wednesday's win, and kept the run going in the series finale, extending their streak of home wins against the Rays to 17 in the process.

"It's tough to get a four-game sweep at this level," Wedge said. "I've got so much respect for the teams we play, and it's tough to do. But the guys are really coming together and playing much better baseball."

Playing any baseball was a challenge in this rain-soaked week, but the Indians and Rays, who don't face each other again this season, managed to get all four games in somehow. They sat through a two-hour delay before the first pitch of Wednesday's game, and the nearly three-hour delay on this day extended an otherwise crisp and clean contest.

For four innings, Huff showed marked improvement over his first two starts in the big leagues, one of which was his clunker of a debut against this same Rays team. Huff allowed just four hits with one walk and two strikeouts over four scoreless.

"I felt like he had a little bit more on the end of his pitches," Wedge said. "He worked behind most of the day and made it a little more difficult for himself than he should have. But that says a lot about his stuff today. He had something on the end of his fastball and did a good job with his breaking ball as well."

Yet Huff, who was staked to a 1-0 lead on Victor Martinez's RBI groundout off Jeff Niemann in the third, couldn't get in line for the victory, because the rain cut him off.

"In Triple-A, my nickname was 'Rain Man,' because I made seven starts, and I think six were delayed or had some kind of rain," Huff said. "You can't control it. You just move to the next one."

Thanks to the improvement he showed on this day, Huff will have a next one. Wedge said Huff will remain in the Tribe rotation.

But Huff couldn't remain in this game after the long delay, so the lead was placed in the hands of the bullpen. The 'pen received another run of support when Martinez ripped a two-out, RBI single off Lance Cormier in the fifth.

While Martinez is in his first slump of the season (3-for-his-last-27), he nonetheless has six RBIs in his last three games, and they've been big ones.

"Even if he's not hitting .400 ," Wedge said, "he's still going to get timely, big hits."

The Rays did get one big hit in this one -- and it became the subject of the first-ever home run review in this ballpark. It came when Willy Aybar took Lewis deep on a 1-0 pitch in the sixth. The ball just barely cleared the yellow line at the top of the right-field wall and bounced back into play. Wedge argued that it hit on or below the line, but the umpires reviewed the play and, 90 seconds later, determined that it was, indeed, a homer.

"You ask four people what they saw on the replay," Wedge said, "and two of them are going to be adamant that it wasn't a home run, and two will be adamant that it was. I'm not talking about the umpires. I'm talking about the coaches or players or fans, or whoever it may be. But I appreciate the fact that they went in and took a look at it."

Lewis gave up another base hit to Ben Zobrist, and Herges came in. The veteran struck out Gabe Gross and Gabe Kapler to end the threat and preserve a 2-1 lead.

After Herges, who was credited with the win by the official scorer, worked a scoreless seventh, Rafael Betancourt did likewise in the eighth. And Kerry Wood tossed a perfect ninth for his eighth save.

Behold, a bullpen. The Indians have been searching for one all season, and it's arrived with some unlikely sources of help, such as Herges (1-0, 1.35 ERA).

"I have not been here very long," Herges said, "but I do know that we want to be the backbone of this team. You can't win without a bullpen that's functioning well. And right now, we're functioning well."