CLEVELAND — The Texas Rangers have left the building, but the losses are still hanging around.

A day after the Rangers completed a four-game sweep of the Indians, Cleveland was back on the wrong end of a 6-4 decision Monday night in the series opener against Central Division rival Minnesota.

It was a season-high fifth straight loss for the Indians, who also lost for the seventh straight time at home — the longest losing skid at Progressive Field since 2003. The Twins won for the fifth straight time.

Cleveland, which has dropped 10 of its last 13 games, saw its lead in the division shrink to 1½ games over Detroit.

“We have to pull everything together, and we have to do it soon,” shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera said. “We’re going through a bad time right now. That’s the game. It’s pretty hard.”

The Indians pitched well in their last two games against the Rangers, but were shut out.

Against Minnesota, Cleveland scored enough to win, but was derailed by an uncharacteristically shoddy outing from right-hander Josh Tomlin.

Staked to a 2-0 lead after one inning, Tomlin allowed six runs on nine hits over six innings, losing for the first time in his last nine starts at Progressive Field.

“We just can’t seem to get every part of the game right,” manager Manny Acta said. “We jumped ahead at the beginning, but we just gave up too many.”

Tomlin squandered the lead in quick fashion, allowing the Twins to tie it at 2 in the second, then forge ahead for good via a three-run fifth.

The Indians botched two plays on bunts from Minnesota in the decisive fifth, Tomlin throwing off the mark to first on one of them. He blamed himself on the other as well after first baseman Matt LaPorta charged a bunt from Drew Butera but didn’t have time to make a play at home or first.

Tomlin felt as though he could have made the play and gotten at least one out at first.

“I messed up both of those (bunts) and it led to a big inning,” Tomlin said. “They hit bad pitches on my end (for the game). They were putting pretty good swings on me.”

Tomlin has been the Indians’ most consistent starter, but he has been roughed up for 12 runs in his last two outings.

“It’s about making adjustments, period, up here,” Acta said. “A couple of times, he just missed pitches. It’s part of it. He’s human.”

Tomlin has noticed hitters making adjustments against him.

“Guys are taking swings early,” he said. “They know I’m going to throw strikes. Sometimes it goes your way. It just didn’t go my way tonight.”

Though it didn’t begin that way, it wound up going Twins starter Scott Baker’s way.

After allowing the two first-inning runs on Asdrubal Cabrera’s 12th home run of the season, Baker settled in to allow just one more earned run on Michael Brantley’s solo shot in the fifth.

He allowed three earned runs on nine hits over seven innings to win for the first time since May 6.

“We let him get into a rhythm, he kept pounding the strike zone and got the best of us,” Acta said. “Giving up six runs doesn’t give you much of a chance when you’re swinging the bat the way we are right now.”

The Indians are clearly in a funk, but Acta isn’t dwelling on the losing ills that confront his club for the first time this season.

“You can name every team in the big leagues and just about every one of them has gone through a losing streak,” Acta said. “All those guys in there got us to where we’re at right now, which is in first place.”
For now.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.