CLEVELAND – So much for getting off to a fast start.
New Indians manager Manny Acta preached all spring that his club needed to hit the ground running from spring training.
It appeared it had, when Cleveland took two of three from the White Sox in Chicago to start the season, but since then, the Indians have dropped five straight games.
There was a silver lining to the latest defeat Wednesday night, a 6-2 loss to the Texas Rangers, with few fans around to see it – 10,071, which accounted for the smallest crowd ever at Jacobs/Progressive Field.
“There’s no magic trick for stopping (losing streaks),” said Acta, whose club has lost seven straight home games to the Rangers, dating back to last season. “Obviously, you don’t want them to go too long, but there’s not a switch I can flip.
“You’ve got to keep going out there and fighting. You need to get out there and pitch, score runs and catch the ball.”
The Indians did none of that well in the second game of the series against Texas, but a lack of offense was again at the primary root of the loss.
Cleveland mustered just five hits to Texas’ 15 and failed miserable with runners in scoring position (1-for-10), while leaving 12 on base.
Texas’ scheduled starter C.J. Wilson was scratched after developing a case of food poisoning and was replaced by right-hander Colby Lewis, who did his best to make Indians hitters sick.
Lewis allowed two runs (none through the first five innings) on three hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out a career-high 10 batters. With Lewis on the mound, Cleveland struck out nine times in 14 at-bats from the end of the first inning to the first out of the fifth. The Indians fanned 12 times for the game.
“Most of the game lie in our inability to drive in runners in scoring position,” Acta said. “We’ve been doing a good job with runners in scoring position, but two runs and five hits aren’t going to get you very far at this level unless you have dominant pitching.
“The tone was set in the first inning.”
In the opening inning, the Indians loaded the bases with one out, yet failed to score when Jhonny Peralta and Matt LaPorta struck out in succession to end the threat.
Peralta had a rough night, going 0-for-3, striking out once and hitting into an inning-ending double play with two on in the seventh. He also committed an error that led to two runs in the third.
There was even a negative spin on the one hit the Indians mustered with runners in scoring position, when a fan down the right-field line grabbed Michael Brantley’s two-run double in the sixth, depriving Cleveland of another run that would have made it 4-3.
Indians starting pitcher Justin Masterson could have used more support from his offense.
In his second start of the season, the right-hander allowed four runs (two earned) on nine hits, while striking out nine over six innings.
Masterson struggled early, allowing all of his runs over the first three innings, before finding his groove and shutting out Texas on one hit over his final three innings of work.
“I got into some 2-0 counts (early) and they just crushed the ball,” said Masterson, who has gone nine straight starts without a win, dating back to last season. “I felt even early on, when I was able to get ahead, things worked out well for me. Overall, I felt pretty good about what I did.”
“The first three innings those lefties just wore him out,” Acta said of Masterson, who has traditionally struggled against left-handed hitters. “The second part of the game he pitched very well.”
Down 2-0 in the third, a low throw to first from Peralta allowed the leadoff batter, Michael Young, to reach base on the error. The Indians got two outs before Nelson Cruz belted a home run to right field that put the Rangers in front 4-0.
Cruz, who hit the game-winning homer in the 10th inning of Cleveland’s 4-2 loss in the home opener, has six homers and 12 RBIs over the Rangers’ first eight games – both accounting for team records.
If there is anything positive to take from the Indians’ slow start, it’s been that they have been in nearly every game. Cleveland has lost four times by two runs and once by a run.
“We just have to keep fighting,” Masterson said. “We’ve had a lot of chances and have been close. We’ve just found ways to lose it or not take advantage of opportunities to win it.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
