LORAIN — A fire this morning has left a Lorain man homeless, but, for now, firefighters aren’t sure where that man is.

According to Fire Capt. Dennis Livchak, firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the trailer and the rear of the trailer fully engulfed in flames.

Neighbors initially believed Ryan Pesek, 32, the trailer’s occupant, might be trapped in the trailer, but that wasn’t the case.

Both neighbors and fire officials reported that Pesek was spotted leaving the area on foot a short time after the fire started.

According to one neighbor, “he didn’t seem concerned and he didn’t seem surprised” when informed that his trailer was on fire. Pesek, a Nord Center patient, had been having “some issues” with his landlord at the mobile home park, according to fire Capt. Dennis Livchak.

One neighbor said Pesek was upset because his landlord had recently cut his natural gas service.

Livchak said the trailer, which was worth about $5,000, was a total loss. He said the fire started in the rear bedroom of the home and the cause remains under investigation. Officials from the Lorain Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Bureau were already on scene before 9 this morning.

West Erie Avenue was closed to traffic briefly while firefighters set up a hose to hydrant across the street. They were able to extinguish the fire with the water in their trucks, however, so West Erie reopened within a few minutes.

Photos by neighbor Mary Ann Haullauer:

CT photos:

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Indians catcher Lou Marson hasn’t allowed his struggles in the batter’s box this season to interfere with his solid work behind the plate.

Marson broke the game open in the sixth with his first career grand slam after Travis Hafner led off the inning with a go-ahead homer that was upheld by video replay, and Cleveland beat the fast-fading Los Angeles Angels 6-1 Tuesday night.

“Lou has to work on his offensive game, obviously, but defensively he’s been one of the best catchers in the league. He’s been tremendous,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He not only is throwing guys out, but he’s also done a good job of blocking balls and calling the ballgame. And he knows our pitching staff, because some of these guys who are up here now were with him in Triple-A after he went down. He’s done a great job leading those guys.”

Marson threw out Bobby Abreu trying to steal second base in the fourth inning, temporarily preventing Abreu from reaching 20 steals for the 12th straight season. Marson then threw out Torii Hunter at third for the first out of the seventh with the Angels down by five runs. Marson’s percentage of runners thrown out is an AL-best 36.5 (23-for-63).

“I take pride in my defense and my throwing,” Marson said. “That, and running the pitching staff, is my No. 1 job.”

Hunter has been thrown out five times in his eight attempts to steal third base this season.

“It kind of caught me off guard, and maybe that’s what he was trying to do,” Marson said. “It was 6-1 at the time, so it surprised me. But I’ll take it. The pitchers holding runners on has a lot to do with it. It all comes down to them getting the ball to me in the least amount of time.”

The Angels lost for the 11th time in 15 games, keeping the three-time defending AL West champions 9½ games behind division-leading Texas with 23 remaining.

“If you’re not playing good baseball, it’s not going to matter if you’re playing on the moon or any other planet,” manager Mike Scioscia said, forgetting for a moment that the moon isn’t a planet. “This sounds like a broken record: We have to pick up our game. These guys are the guys that have to do it.

“There’s a level of frustration in here, that’s for sure. These guys in here are feeling it harder than anybody. We’re going to evaluate things very closely. But these guys are the guys that have to do it right now. We’re playing baseball that is very uncharacteristic of the guys in that room and we’re responsible for that. We’re not going in the right direction, there’s no doubting that.”

The Angels, who have spent one day alone in first place all season, have lost five straight home games for the first time since 2006 – the last time they failed to reach the playoffs. Hunter’s ill-advised dash didn’t help.

“I apologize for me and for us as a team,” said Hunter, who hit his 21st homer in the fifth to tie the score. “We need to play better. This is what we get paid to do. Our performance is terrible.”

Justin Masterson (6-12) allowed a run and six hits over seven innings with five strikeouts and two walks. The 6-foot-6 right-hander from Jamaica is 4-7 with a 4.98 ERA in 16 starts since beating Boston 11-0 on June 9 with a two-hitter for his first big league shutout. In his last three starts, he has allowed a total of three runs over 20 2/3 innings.

“It’s one of those things where you’re trying to find the correct checkpoints and things come together,” Masterson said. “As a big, tall, lanky guy, you try to work through many different things. And I’ve finally found some good checkpoints to catch myself – even within the game. I just tell myself to remember what makes me good and what I can do. I’ve been turning to those checkpoints, and that’s what’s made me consistent.”

Trevor Bell (2-5) allowed two runs and four hits over 5 1/3 innings. Shin-Soo Choo’s sacrifice fly in the third was the only run against the right-hander until the sixth, when Hafner led off with a towering drive that hit just above the 18-foot wall in right field. Second base umpire Angel Hernandez gave the home run signal, bringing Scioscia out of the dugout to argue.

Scioscia requested that the umpires check the video, and plate ump Rob Drake remained on the field while Hernandez, Dan Bellino and crew chief Joe West went inside for another look.

Bell faced one more batter before rookie Francisco Rodriguez came on. He gave up a single to Jordan Brown, then walked the next two batters before Marson drove a 1-0 pitch to left field for his third homer of the season and a 6-1 lead. It was the eighth grand slam allowed by the Angels’ staff.

“I knew he was going to come with a fastball,” said Marson, whose homer ended a 4-for-33 slide. “He just left it up and I put a pretty good swing on it. It’s definitely a good feeling, my first career grand slam.”

Notable

Hafner has eight home runs against the Angels since July 2004, when he had five in a two-day span.
• The Angels have as many road victories as Texas (32), but nine fewer wins at home (34). Seven of their final 13 games are against the Rangers.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shin-Soo Choo drove home Michael Brantley with a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning, and the Cleveland Indians rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.

Brantley’s two-out double off Angels closer Fernando Rodney started the final surge for the last-place Indians, who have won three of five on a West Coast road trip.

After Rodney (4-2) hit Asdrubal Cabrera with a pitch, Choo extended his productive trip with the go-ahead hit.

More photos below.

Torii Hunter hit a tying homer in the sixth inning for the punchless Angels, who opened the three-game series with their 10th loss in 14 games.

Jensen Lewis (4-2) earned the victory with three pitches, striking out Mike Napoli with a runner on base in the eighth. Chris Perez pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 23 chances.

Napoli hit two doubles for the Angels, who are essentially out of the race for their sixth AL West title in seven seasons. Los Angeles has rarely played meaningless September baseball in the past several years, but the Angels are 19-28 since hosting the All-Star game, managing just 21 runs in their last 10 games.

Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco again fell short of his first major league victory in his seventh start, although the longtime Philadelphia farmhand looked good in six innings of six-hit ball. Carrasco, acquired in last year’s trade of Cliff Lee to the Phillies, yielded two walks and struck out six in his second start of the season.

Carrasco matched three-time All-Star Dan Haren, who gave up five hits over seven innings. Haren, who walked four and struck out six, has won just two of his nine starts since Los Angeles acquired him from Arizona in late July.

Haren struck out the side in the second inning and didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, when Travis Hafner scored on Shelley Duncan’s sacrifice fly.

Carrasco retired nine straight early on, but Los Angeles’ Peter Bourjos drove a triple down the left-field line and scored on Alberto Callaspo’s sharp single in the fifth. Haren then lost his control in the sixth, walking three straight to force in Cleveland’s second run after Jayson Nix’s two-out double.

Hunter swiftly answered with a shot to right field, his 20th homer of the season. After going 20 straight games without driving in a run, the Angels’ clubhouse leader has knocked in four in the last three games.

Notes

• Hunter has hit 20 homers in nine of the last 10 seasons.
• Perez has allowed a run in just seven of his 57 appearances this season, keeping the opposition scoreless in 29 of his last 31 outings.
• In a quirky bit of scheduling, the Indians visited Angel Stadium for another three-game series way back in April, but the Angels won’t visit Cleveland until next week.

The State Highway Patrol will be utilizing federal funds to step up patrols and remove drunken drivers from Lorain County roads this weekend, according to Lt. Travis Hughes, commander of the patrol’s Elyria post.

Troopers will be conducting sobriety checkpoints around the state, according to a news release. In Lorain County, there won’t be any checkpoints, just stepped up patrols, Hughes said.

Historically, the Labor Day weekend is one of the deadliest on Ohio’s roads, according to a news release. Last year during Labor Day weekend, 17 people died in accidents, and seven of those deaths were alcohol related.