CLEVELAND – Mitch Talbot made his return to the Indians’ rotation Saturday night at Progressive Field. The triumphant part is going to have to wait.
Talbot, fresh off the 15-day disabled list where he landed with a midback strain, was understandably rusty. Coupled with another poor performance from Cleveland’s offense and defense, it all added up to a 9-3 loss to the Mariners, who secured the series by taking the first two games.
“It was not a very good ballgame overall,” said Indians manager Manny Acta, whose team has lost six of its last seven games. “Mitch wasn’t as sharp today and we didn’t play good defense behind him at times.”
Talbot lasted only four innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks.
“I felt pretty well,” Talbot said. “I missed a lot of spots over the plate. It wasn’t good.”
“He just couldn’t finish hitters off and that put us behind the eight ball,” Acta said. “Then they blew the game open with the grand slam.”
The grand slam came from a familiar face – former Indians catcher Josh Bard – and capped a five-run fifth inning that put the game away for the Mariners, who led 7-2 after Bard connected off reliever Hector Ambriz.
The inning began with another former Indian Russell Branyan, who opened the season in Cleveland, hitting a leadoff home run off Talbot.
The bases were loaded for Bard after a single from Jose Lopez that preceded consecutive errors on third baseman Andy Marte. Marte botched a pair of groundballs, then watched Bard all but beat his team.
“They opened the game (up) right there,” Marte said. “I want to make a good play. I want to catch every groundball I see.”
Marte didn’t agree with the first error on a ball that appeared to take a bad hop off the bat of Casey Kotchman.
“I don’t think I made the first one,” he said. “It was a tough groundball. I don’t know why they gave me an error. (On the second one) I was just trying to pass it from my glove to my hand and I missed.”
Bard entered the game hitting just .219 but went 4-for-5 with four RBIs, missing the cycle by a triple. He went 2-for-2 off Talbot, who is hoping the dismal outing can be chalked up to inactivity.
“I hope that’s what it is,” he said. “Mechanically, I felt good. Physically, I felt good. It was just one of those nights where I didn’t have any control. Hopefully, I’ll come back next start and have my stuff back.”
Acta was expecting a better outing from Talbot, long layoff or not.
“We’re not here to make excuses for guys,” Acta said. “When they pitch well, they pitch well. When they struggle, they struggle, and he struggled today.”
Cleveland’s depleted offense did little against Mariners starter Jason Vargas, who allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings.
Down 2-0, the Indians showed some life by rallying to tie it on a double from Jayson Nix followed by a Marte single. After tying the game, Marte was promptly picked off to end the inning.
Nix drove in Cleveland’s final run in the sixth with a two-out homer off Vargas, accounting for one of two Indians’ hits over the final four innings.
“We lost four guys – Austin Kearns, Carlos Santana, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta – in the middle of our lineup,” Acta said. “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a battle for these kids.”
The Indians played well against teams above .500 over a 24-game stretch to start the second half. Since then, they have dropped four of five games to the last-place Orioles and Mariners.
“We played that stretch of tough teams and played pretty well,” Talbot said. “You want to continue that, so yeah, it’s been a little bit frustrating. That’s baseball, I guess.”
The Indians are expected to get somewhat of a boost today with the likely activation of Travis Hafner, who has been on the disabled list since Aug. 3 with right shoulder inflammation.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
TODAY
• WHO: Cleveland vs. Seattle
• TIME: 1:05 p.m.
• WHERE: Progressive Field
• PITCHERS: Masterson (4-11, 5.47 ERA) vs. Hernandez (8-9, 2.71)
• TV/RADIO: Channel 3, SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM
