The 23-year-old former first-round pick of the Cleveland Indians rebounded from a forgettable April to go 5-1 in May with a 1.69 earned run average.

Tuesday, he won his seventh straight start, giving up no earned runs on four hits as the Bisons won, 5-2, over Syracuse in front of an announced crowd of 6,484 at Dunn Tire Park that appeared to be more like 2,500.

Drew's statistics are startlingly impressive.

Not only has he won his last seven starts - including two complete-game shutouts - Drew has allowed only one earned run over his last 32 innings. That gives him a 0.28 ERA in his last four starts.

Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro even watched Drew's last masterful start, a three-hit, complete-game shutout in Toledo. And yet, it was Nerio Rodriguez who got the call to Cleveland last week when the Tribe needed to add a middle reliever.

But Drew is far from the brink of desperate disappointment. Fiercely religious, he talks repeatedly about his faith in God, which gives him freedom from worry and anxiety over things beyond his control.

"I've been playing the last couple of years at times probably for the wrong motives," Drew said. "Goals are good. Dreams are good, but if I'm just content and happy with where I'm at, the rest will take care of itself. With God leading my life, I can rest assured in that. It allows me to stay focused. It allows me just to go out and be myself and enjoy the game. Baseball is fun and it's supposed to be enjoyable. I know it's a job, but I don't want to look at it that way. It's still my childhood dream."

Drew suffered a difficult start to his professional baseball career. Selected in the first round by Cleveland in 1999, he's earned short stints in parts of the last two seasons with the Tribe, only to find his way back to Buffalo.

This season started miserably for Drew with three losses and three no-decisions. His ERA in April was 7.71, but once he found his spots, the wins just started piling up while the ERA kept going down.

"I think a lot of guys might have buckled after starting as poorly as he did, but that's a statement to his character," said catcher Josh Bard. "He has the ability to not worry so much so he can execute the game plan. I think something he's learned over the years is that you can only do what you can do. You can't try to be something you're not. You can't try to be perfect out there. All you can do is try to execute your game plan and some nights you're not going to and some nights you are and they're going to hit you anyway. That's just baseball."

Baseball also is about getting the right breaks at the right time.

Drew's main obstacle to another shot at the majors is his bad timing. Perhaps the one thing Cleveland doesn't need right now is a starting pitcher with the solid rotation of Bartolo Colon, C.C. Sabathia, Danys Baez, Ryan Drese and Chuck Finley. And Drew isn't exactly suited to be a reliever, especially with the statistics he's compiled.

So he has no choice but to throw every five days for the Herd until injury, illness or trade changes the organization's pitching landscape.

"He's really worked hard to be consistent and command the baseball as a starter," manager Eric Wedge said. "I think everybody has to understand at this level it's tough. The only thing they can control is to go out there and perform as best as they can and Timmy's done a great job."

Drew got all the run support he needed in the second inning, when Anthony Medrano hit a routine pop fly to shallow right that was dropped by Brian Lesher. That out would have ended the inning. Instead, the error scored two runs and Medrano scored on a single by Zach Sorensen. Buffalo added two more runs in the fourth, one on a throwing error. The other scored when on a double play.

Buffalo placed right-handed pitcher Ted Rose (elbow) and outfielder Bruce Aven (knee) on the disabled list. . . . Lefty Mike Speigle was promoted from Double-A Akron. In 13 games, he made eight starts, going 3-1 with a 3.64 ERA. He is scheduled to start for the Herd Friday night against Durham. . . . The series moves to Syracuse for two games, starting tonight (7, Radio 1520 AM) with Herd lefty Jason Stanford (1-1, 4.76) scheduled to start against righty Pasqual Coco (2-3, 5.20).

e-mail: amoritz@buffnews.com