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The Indians dropped the series finale to the Yankees, 11-4, Thursday night, losing starting pitcher Mitch Talbot and catcher Carlos Santana to injuries.
Talbot left in the third inning with a mid-back strain, while Santana departed to start the eighth inning after being hit on the left knee by a pitch from reliever Joe Smith in the seventh.
Cleveland dropped the series, winning just one of the four games, but was able to prevent from Alex Rodriguez from hitting his 600th home run.
CLEVELAND – Jayson Nix, not Andy Marte, will replace Jhonny Peralta as the Indians’ starting third baseman.
“Jayson Nix is going to get the first shot,” said manager Manny Acta. “We got some good production from him at second base. Andy is going to get some starts over there, too. (Luis) Valbuena will be there to back them up, but Nix is going to get the majority of the playing time right now.”
Nix, who was claimed off waivers from the White Sox, played third base on a limited basis for Chicago the past two seasons, making eight starts in 2009 and 12 this year. He entered Thursday hitting .255 (24-for-94) with six home runs and 12 RBIs in 24 games for Cleveland.
Marte appeared to be the obvious replacement for Peralta, serving as his back up for the majority of the season. But he has struggled offensively, batting just .198 (17-for-86) with three homers and 12 RBIs in 40 games.
Valbuena, Cleveland’s opening day starter at second base, has been playing third sporadically since being demoted to Columbus. He found his hitting stroke with the Clippers, hitting .313 (30-for-96) with six homers and 20 RBIs in 25 games after being optioned.
“He ends up being a utility infielder,” Acta said. “He’s going to have to earn his job back.”
Columbus’ Jared Goedert, who entered Thursday with 24 homers and 68 RBIs in 90 games for the Clippers and Double-A Akron, is also an option at third in the future.
“I think we’re probably going to take a look at him later on, but that probably won’t be until September,” Acta said. “Right now the kid is developing down there. We don’t want to interrupt that. We have to take a look at these guys right now to see if they could be alternatives for next year.”
If the Indians aren’t happy with any of the alternatives, they might shop for a third baseman in the offseason.
“First, we have to see what (Nix, Marte and Valbuena) are going to be,” Acta said. “Step two is to take a look at Goedert. No. 3, take a look at the market and see if we can make a move outside the organization.”
Bad rap?
Jhonny Peralta endured plenty of criticism before being traded to the Tigers on Wednesday, but Acta saw a different side.
“He led this team in doubles (23) and was second in RBIs (43),” Acta said. “The expectations that were always placed on Jhonny were pretty high. Not being able to take the inside pitch to the opposite field hurt him a little bit. But he did his part. He never complained and worked very hard and played well defensively for us.”
Trade talk
Acta isn’t predicting much activity from his club as Saturday’s trading deadline approaches.
“I don’t think we are a team that’s loaded with guys in that type of situation,” he said. “All we have is a bunch of kids up here. We don’t have a bunch of veterans that we have to move.”
Veterans Jake Westbrook, Kerry Wood and Austin Kearns appear to be the most likely candidates to be dealt.
Not again
Travis Hafner was scratched from the lineup with right shoulder soreness, the same shoulder that has plagued him since 2008.
Hafner, who is hitting .449 (13-for-29) with a home run and four RBIs over his last eight games, was replaced by Shelley Duncan at designated hitter.
Wood’s world
Wood (blister right index finger) pitched a perfect inning in a rehab outing for Akron on Thursday, throwing all eight of his pitches for strikes.
The right-hander will be re-evaluated today, and if all is well, he is expected to be activated during a three-game series in Toronto, which begins tonight.
Next up
Justin Masterson (3-9, 5.19 ERA) opens the set for Cleveland against Toronto, opposing RHP Shaun Marcum (9-4, 3.36), while Jake Westbrook (6-7, 4.65) starts Saturday (1:07 p.m.) against LHP Brett Cecil (8-5, 3.89).
Josh Tomlin (1-0, 1.29) pitches the series finale Sunday (1:07 p.m.), the Blue Jays countering with RHP Jesse Litsch (1-4, 5.48).
Minor detail
Matt McBride was promoted to Columbus after batting .285 with 17 homers and 64 RBIs in 94 games for Akron. McBride, a sandwich draft pick between the second and third rounds in 2006, hit 13 homers and drove in 32 runs over his last 26 games with the Aeros. His 17 homers with Akron rank fourth in the Eastern League.
Roundin’ third
Shin-Soo Choo entered Thursday batting .455 (10-for-22) with five doubles and three RBIs in six games since being activated from the disabled list. … Cleveland’s pitching staff had allowed three earned runs or fewer in 20 of the last 28 games through Wednesday. … Tonight, 7:07, STO/WTAM 1100-AM/WEOL 930-AM.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
ELYRIA — An officer who stopped to help a two motorists early this morning wound up arresting one of them when a check of the vehicle came back stolen, according to an Elyria police report.
Tyrone White, 18, of Lorain, was turned over to Lorain police on a grand theft auto warrant.
According to the report, an officer stopped to help two men who were standing near a disabled vehicle at state Route 57 and Gulf Road about 3:20 a.m.
The men told the officer the vehicle had overheated and they were waiting for it to cool down, the report said.
In the meantime, a dispatcher ran the car’s plate and discovered it was stolen and that White was wanted by Lorain police.
When asked who the vehicle belonged to, White first told police “some dude,” then said his aunt owned the car but that he did not know her name.
White was booked at the Elyria police station and then turned over to Lorain police. The second man in the car was taken to the police station to arrange to be picked up because he had no charges against him, the report said.
An officer inventorying the vehicle to be towed located a bag of crack, which was entered into evidence.
CLEVELAND — Fausto Carmona has given the Indians an opportunity to win nearly every time he has taken the mound this season.
Wednesday night, however, the right-hander ensured there was no chance for victory.
Bombed early and often, Carmona produced his worst effort of the year to pave the way for an 8-0 loss to the Yankees, who for the third straight night were deprived of celebrating Alex Rodriguez’s 600th home run.
Rodriguez reached base for the first time in the series, going 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
Lasting a season-low 2 2/3 innings, Carmona was roasted for seven runs on 10 hits, losing for the first time since July 4 to snap a personal three-game winning streak.
“Fausto just didn’t have it today,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta. “For some reason everything was hard. There wasn’t much difference between his fastball and change-up. His sinker was up and his secondary pitches weren’t very effective.
“That’s the wrong lineup not to have your pitches working for you.”
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Carmona allowed four runs over the first two innings, then fell apart in the third, surrendering three more before being mercifully removed. He allowed four of the first five hitters to reach base in the third — two doubles (Robinson Cano and Brett Garnder), a triple (Curtis Granderson) and a hit batter (Francisco Cervelli).
“I tried to throw strikes,” Carmona said. “I was up a little bit and allowed a lot of base hits. I don’t know what happened. Sometimes I threw my change-up too hard. It was almost like my fastball.”
Though he was facing the best team in baseball (64-36), Carmona said it had nothing to do with his poor performance.
“I don’t care if it’s the Yankees, but I might have had a little too much energy,” Carmona said. “I tried to slow down but I couldn’t.”
New York scored all of its runs over the first four innings. As evidenced by the final score, pitching wasn’t a problem for the Yankees.
Starter A.J. Burnett, who entered the night with mediocre numbers — 8-8, 4.77 ERA — worked one of his best outings of the year, shutting out Cleveland on seven hits while striking out seven over 6 1/3 innings. The Indians had runners aboard in every inning that Burnett worked but never made the right-hander pay.
“We had some traffic out there,” Acta said, “but it seemed like every time we got something going, A.J. stepped it up and made big pitches. He had that electric fastball.”
The Indians’ best chance to score arrived in their last atbat. Travis Hafner led off with a walk, then moved to second when Austin Kearns walked.
Both runners stayed put after Matt LaPorta and Andy Marte flew out against Sergio Mitre and Jason Donald struck out to end the game.
Hafner and Trevor Crowe accounted for five of Cleveland’s eight hits. Crowe went 3for-4 with three singles, while Hafner reached base in three of his four trips to the plate, walking once and delivering singles in his last two at-bats.
Crowe is batting .347 (17-for-49) with four doubles, a triple, a home run and six RBIs over his last 14 games. Hafner is hitting .378 (17-for-45) with three doubles, a homer and four RBIs over his last 13 games.
The start of the game was delayed 42 minutes by rain. It ended with the Indians being shut out for an American League-high ninth time.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
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