CLEVELAND — There were plenty of fond memories from Monday’s home opener, but in the end, it was a day to forget for the Indians and the sellout crowd at Progressive Field.

Fausto Carmona offered up another positive performance, and rising star Shin-Soo Choo enjoyed a highlight-filled game, but Cleveland still lost, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Rangers in front of 42,061 fans.

Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run off reliever Jamey Wright with one out in the 10th inning broke a 2-all tie and sent the Indians to their fourth straight defeat.

It was the second straight day that Cleveland’s bullpen, a suspect group even before losing closer Kerry Wood to injury, had a hand in torching a potential victory.

“It’s nothing to be happy about, but we’re not the only team that’s had struggles at the back end (of the bullpen),” said Indians manager Manny Acta. “It’s going to get better as the season goes on.”

Cleveland’s bullpen actually staved off the defeat for an inning after Wood’s replacement, right-hander Chris Perez, struggled again in the ninth inning.

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Perez, who allowed three runs in the ninth in a 9-8 loss to the Tigers on Sunday, entered with the game tied at 2, and while facing the bottom three hitters in Texas’ order, permitted all three to reach base — one on an ill-advised attempt from the pitcher to throw to third on a sacrifice bunt back to the mound.

Tony Sipp and Wright rode to the rescue, Sipp retiring former Indian Ryan Garko on a pop up, and Wright getting the dangerous Michael Young to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

“My buddies picked me up big time but I still pitched like crap,” Perez said. “It was the bottom of the order and I let all three of them on base. That’s unacceptable.”

Choo, who appears poised to have a big year after batting .300 with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases last season, was pretty much all of Cleveland’s offense, going 3-for-3 with a double, a homer, a stolen base and one RBI.

He scored both of the Indians’ runs, giving them the early lead with a solo shot off Texas starter Rich Harden with two outs in the opening inning. Choo scored his second run on a sacrifice fly from Jhonny Peralta in the sixth.

The right fielder, who also produced a negative highlight by getting doubled up after forgetting how many outs there were in the third inning, had three of his team’s seven hits on the day.

“You have to give credit to Harden,” Acta said of the veteran right-hander, who allowed two runs on five hits over six innings. “It looked like we were going to get to him early but he made the adjustments and kept us in check.”

The same can be said for Carmona, who was effectively wild again — four walks — in his second start of the year.

The right-hander walked six in his season debut and struggled with location again, but he allowed just two runs on five hits, while striking out four over eight innings.

“He pitched himself out of it and gave us a quality start,” Acta said. “We wanted to see him carry it over from spring training and he’s done that in his first two outings.”

Carmona has moved to the other side of the pitching rubber for the first time this season and thinks the approach has paid off.

“I think it’s helped out a lot, keeping the ball down,” he said.

Carmona shut out the Rangers on two hits over the first four innings before Texas took its first lead with two runs in the fifth, both of them coming with two outs.

The first run scored on a groundball single up the middle from Young.

Cleveland second baseman Luis Valbuena had a chance to keep the ball in the infield and prevent the run, but chose to make a sliding attempt as the grounder skidded over his glove and into center.

“(Valbuena) was spoken to,” Acta said. “I don’t think you’ll see him do that again.”

Texas’ second run of the inning came on a wild pitch from Carmona, Cleveland’s seventh wild pitch in as many games.

After Peralta’s sacrifice fly tied it at 2, the teams went scoreless over the next three innings before the Rangers put it away against Wright.

Josh Hamilton led off the inning with a base hit and stole second before Wright got Vladimir Guerrero to fly to center for the first out, bringing Cruz to the plate.

After watching Wright’s first offering, Cruz hit the second well over the wall in left field.

“He’s hot right now,” Acta said of the Rangers’ right fielder, who is batting .458 (11-for-24) with five homers and 11 RBIs in seven games.

Wright, who was acquired this offseason and won a job out of spring training, said he got too much of the plate on the 1-0 fastball he grooved to Cruz.

“One bad pitch cost us,” Wright said. “I felt great and was excited about making a good first impression, which I didn’t.”

After making a positive first impression in the Indians’ season-opening series in Chicago, Cleveland’s relief corps is beginning to perform as expected.

“We’ve been in every game, so that’s a good thing,” Wright said. “We’ve got a great bullpen. Guys have good stuff, but these are games we need to win so we don’t fall too far behind.”

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.