ARLINGTON, Texas — The Cleveland Indians are resetting their goals for the final two weeks of the season.
Fausto Carmona, far from the All-Star season he had a year ago, gave up six runs over six innings and the Indians lost 7-4 to the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, wrapping up a three-game series sweep.
That cut Detroit’s magic number for clinching the AL Central to one.
“All you can think is you failed to achieve your goal, which is to win the division,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “You play to win the division. So you get your head up, play for second place or above .500. You have to shift gears and have another goal.”
Cleveland (72-75) and the Chicago White Sox (73-76), who lost earlier at Kansas City, are fighting for second place in the AL Central. The Indians have a three-game series at Minnesota before going home for a makeup game Monday against Seattle and then four games against the White Sox.
“All we can do is keep showing up and try to win as many games as we can. We have to finish this season with pride,” second baseman Jason Kipnis said.
“We know we could have been playing better. … Nobody on this team enjoys losing. It’s not time to start now. We’ll battle the rest of the way and finish with our heads held high.”
The Rangers led 1-0 with one out in the fifth before Cleveland opted to walk reigning AL MVP Josh Hamilton to load the bases.
Michael Young then delivered a three-run double to go over 100 RBIs for the second time in his career, and Adrian Beltre immediately followed with a two-run homer for a 6-0 lead.
“I don’t take those things personally. I just try to focus on my job,” Young said. “At that point we’re really making sure we’re trying to push one across. I was just trying to get something to the outfield, worst-case scenario sacrifice fly scores a run.”
Texas (86-64) moved 22 games over .500 for the first time since 1999, and now plays nine of its final 12 games on the road, starting Friday night at Seattle. The Rangers extended their division lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 3 1/2 games.
Hamilton hit his 22nd homer in the seventh. He went deep in all three games of the series, including a grand slam Wednesday.
Carmona (6-15) is 0-3 with a 6.97 ERA over his last six starts. Against the Rangers, the right-hander struck out three and walked five while giving up seven hits and five earned runs over six innings.
“Carmona was overthrowing. He didn’t have good sink,” Acta said. “The ball was going side to side. He had one real bad inning and that ended up hurting him.”
Shin-Soo Choo was back in the Indians’ lineup after being activated from the disabled list, but reaggravated his strained left oblique on a swing when he batted in the first. Acta said Choo is done for the season.
Alexi Ogando (13-8) allowed only two singles while throwing six scoreless innings. The All-Star right-hander struck out four and walked two while winning for the first time in a month. He had been 0-3 in five starts since his last win Aug. 15 at the Angels.
The Indians failed to take advantage when they loaded the bases and forced Ogando to throw 39 pitches in the second inning. That is when Ogando had both of his walks, gave up a single and there was a fielder’s choice before Lonnie Chisenhall and Lou Marson both struck out.
“That was our best chance. We had him on the ropes there,” Acta said. “He was a little bit divorced from the strike zone, bases loaded, but we chased some pitches out of the strike zone. It could have been a moment where we chased him out of the game but we couldn’t take advantage of it.”
Ogando faced the minimum three batters the other five innings he pitched, getting Ezequiel Carrera to ground into an inning-ending double play after Kipnis singled in the sixth.
Ogando had already thrown 52 pitches after two innings, then needed only 40 to get through the next four innings.
Shelley Duncan had a bloop RBI single with two outs in the seventh off Darren Oliver for the Indians’ first run. Carrera had an RBI single in the eighth and Cleveland scored twice in the ninth off closer Neftali Feliz, who was getting some work after last pitching Saturday.
Notes
- The Indians were 1-9 against Texas this season and were outscored 68-32. Texas has won 21 of 25 in the series over the past three seasons.
- Andrus has hit in all 23 of his career games against Cleveland.
- Texas had only nine hits, ending its club-record streak of consecutive 12-hit games at seven.
- Actor Jonah Hill, a co-star in the upcoming movie “Moneyball,” threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
- Texas is 49-29 at home.