CLEVELAND — The Indians couldn’t have picked a worse way to finish the first half of the season.

A 7-1 loss to Toronto on Sunday at Progressive Field sent Cleveland to its third straight defeat, which would have been four if not for Travis Hafner’s walk-off grand slam that avoided the sweep in the series opener.

The loss not only gave the Blue Jays the series, it knocked the Indians out of first place in the Central Division, with Cleveland, which had been atop the standings for 88 of the last 94 days since April 7, now trailing Detroit by a half game as the All-Star break convenes.

The Indians would have entered the break in first place for the first time since 1999.

“It’s never good going into the break losing three straight,” said Indians pitching coach Tim Belcher, who filled in during the postgame news conference for manager Manny Acta, as Acta, an assistant coach for the American League’s All-Stars, caught a plane to Arizona and Chase Field.

Indians starter Carlos Carrasco set the tone for what proved to be a dismal first-half finale for the Indians.

The right-hander, who had pitched so brilliantly over a five-start stint from June 7-29, was roughed up for the second straight time, allowing five runs on seven hits in just three innings of work.

Carrasco’s unraveling arrived in the third inning, when he surrendered all five of his runs. He allowed a two-run home run to the second batter of the inning, Eric Thames, then after getting two outs, allowed a run-scoring single to J.P. Arencibia and a two-run double to Corey Patterson.

“I felt good. I just had one bad inning,” Carrasco said. “My fastball wasn’t very good. Every time I missed, I paid the price.”

Though he didn’t seem so following the game, Carrasco was angry at the end of the disastrous third inning, fielding a grounder from Rajai Davis and winding and throwing a fastball to first baseman Carlos Santana for the final out.

Carrasco admitted to displaying his frustration, and Belcher said it played a part in the pitcher’s removal from the game despite throwing only 72 pitches.

“It’s usually a combination of things and that was a factor,” Belcher said. “But the fact of the matter is that they had a bunch of runs on the board.

“Carlos is still a young guy (24) and he’s still learning how to be a major league pitcher and how to handle his emotions on the mound.”

After a five-start stint as one of the American League’s best starters, Carrasco has been one of its worst, allowing 11 runs in seven innings of his last two outings.

“He’s not pitching ahead and he’s not being as aggressive with his fastball,” Belcher said. “He just didn’t get on track today, and we’re going to need him to get on track in the second half.”

A likely source put the game away, with Jose Bautista driving in two on a double in the sixth to make it 7-0.

Bautista, who hit three home runs during the series and beat the Indians with two of them Saturday, is the first AL player to enter the break leading the majors in homers (31), walks (74), slugging percentage (.702) and on-base percentage (.468) since 1961. He is the first player to lead the majors in homers during the first half in two consecutive seasons since Mark McGwire (1997-98).

Meanwhile, Cleveland’s inconsistent offense struggled against a suspect pitcher in Toronto starter Brett Cecil.

Cecil, who entered the day with a 1-4 record and 6.37 ERA, didn’t allow an earned over six innings, surrendering six hits and striking out six.

Cleveland’s only run came in the sixth on Jack Hannahan’s single that scored Grady Sizemore, who reached on an error to start the inning.

“We didn’t swing the bats that well,” Sizemore said.

It was a floundering finish to the first half for the Indians, who are focusing on the positive work that was accomplished prior to the break, rather than their second-place status.

“Obviously we’re in a good position,” Sizemore said. “We’d like to continue that in the second half and play like we did at the beginning of the first half. There’s still a lot of work to do. We have a lot of room for improvement, especially offensively.”

“If you would have told me we would we leading the division by a half game or being out by a 1/2 game, I would have taken that and said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s start the second half,”’ Belcher said. “We got to this point with a little over half of the season done. There’s no reason for us to think we can’t compete and contend the rest of the year.”

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