CLEVELAND — The Indians won a fight at Progressive Field on Tuesday night, but lost the battle.
Cleveland’s scuffling offense, which has been a weak link for an extended time, rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning, only to watch the strength of the club — the bullpen — drench the celebration in a 4-3 loss to Colorado.
Down 3-1 in the eighth, the Indians scored twice on RBI singles from Travis Hafner and Travis Buck, but closer Chris Perez served up a game-winning home run to the first batter he faced in the ninth — Seth Smith — that sent Cleveland to its second straight loss.
Perez, who wasn’t in a save situation, allowed the first earned run by the Indians’ bullpen in 28 2/3 innings (nine games), surrendering his first homer since June 27 of last year — a string of 62 games that covered 60 1/3 innings.
“Every time I go in there, my mentality is to put up a zero,” said Perez, who allowed Smith’s second homer of the game on a 2-2 pitch. “Every time I go out there, the game’s on the line.
“I just didn’t come through. I made some good pitches to Smith. I just hung a slider. It happens.”
The Indians went hitless over the first five innings against Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacin, who despite walking four over the span, including three straight in the third, kept Cleveland scoreless.
A pair of walks from the effectively wild right-hander in the sixth led to the Indians’ first run on their first hit — a two-out single from Shin-Soo Choo.
Chacin, who allowed just a run on two hits over 6 2/3 innings, struck out seven and walked six, throwing nearly as many balls as strikes — 55 out of 115 pitches — but the Indians couldn’t get to him.
“He had a few walks but we couldn’t get the big hit,” manager Manny Acta said. “But we liked what the guys did to fight back. We put up a fight, but we couldn’t get the big hit.”
With Chacin in the dugout, they finally did.
Cord Phelps, Asdrubal Cabrera and Hafner started the eighth with three straight base hits off former Cleveland reliever Rafael Betancourt, Hafner’s driving in a run to close the gap to 3-2.
Adam Everett pinch ran for Hafner in a move that came back to bite the Indians after Buck tied it on a two-out single off right-hander Matt Belisle.
With the Indians rallying again in the ninth off Colorado closer Houston Street, Hafner’s spot in the order came up with runners on second and third and two outs.
Acta chose to pinch hit Austin Kearns for Everett — leaving Orlando Cabrera on the bench — with Kearns and his .209 batting average prior to the at-bat striking out to end the game.
Acta was told by reporters that he might be second-guessed for lifting Hafner, responding by saying, “I don’t care what anybody says. I’m trying to win ballgames.”
Indians starter Mitch Talbot pitched well enough to accomplish as much, but was hurt by the lack of offensive support over the duration of his 6 1/3-inning outing in which he allowed three runs on eight hits.
The right-hander matched Chacin’s scoreless string through four innings before surrendering his first run on Jonathan Herrera’s two-out single in the fifth.
Smith’s first homer — a two-run shot — came off Talbot with two outs in the sixth.
“I thought that Mitch did a very good job,” Acta said. “He threw a lot of strikes and gave us a chance to win. He pitched well.”
For one of the few times this season, an Indians starter admitted the team’s offensive woes weighed on him.
“It comes through your mind a little bit, like ‘When are we going to score?”’ said Talbot, who is 0-3 with a 5.32 ERA over his last four starts, the Indians scoring just five runs over the span and getting shut out twice. “It does cross your mind, but when you’re out there, the focus is on pitching.”
Cleveland, which entered the night with a one-game lead atop the Central Division standings, dropped its fifth straight game to Colorado dating back to 2008.
