CLEVELAND — Technically, the Central Division standings say the Indians are still in the race, but mathematical elimination is coming soon.
A pivotal three-game series with first-place Detroit ended Sunday at Progressive Field with the Indians dropping an 8-6 decision to fall 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Tigers.
The Indians, who hoped to gain ground with a visit from the Tigers, failed miserably, losing all three games. Detroit, which has won six straight and 16 of its last 20 games, sliced its magic number to eliminate Cleveland to 12.
“They took care of business and obviously we didn’t,” said Indians manager Manny Acta, whose club lost its seventh straight to Detroit, entering the day in third place, a half-game behind Chicago. “They’re doing a great job of running away from us.”
“We just got swept,” said Shelley Duncan, when asked about the mood of the team. “We put ourselves in position to win today’s game and it didn’t happen. We’re a little down but we’re going to hold our heads up high and play the game the same way we always have.”
With injuries depleting their lineup and the bullpen sputtering, that has been insufficient as of late and was again Wednesday.
Despite scoring four times off American League Cy Young award frontrunner Justin Verlander — all on a pair of two-run home runs from Duncan — the Indians still couldn’t get it done, losing the lead and the game when Detroit scored five times in the seventh inning.
Cleveland starter Justin Masterson owned a 4-2 advantage when the inning began but left the bases loaded on a base hit, an error and a bunt single. Masterson was relieved by Joe Smith, who allowed an RBI single to Miguel Cabrera and departed in favor of Tony Sipp.
Facing Victor Martinez, Sipp allowed a grand slam on his first pitch to the former Indian, who clouted his second game-winning homer of the series.
“The guys worked hard to get four runs,” said Masterson, who allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits over six innings. “Unfortunately, a couple infield hits were the undoing at the end.”
“When you play teams like that, you can’t give them five outs in an inning,” Acta said. “That cost us the game.”
Sipp has allowed nine homers this season — the second-most on the club behind Fausto Carmona’s 20.
“He did that a little bit last year, too,” Acta said. “He goes after guys. You can’t have it both ways. He’s the only pitcher in the bullpen with both righties and lefties hitting less than .200 against him. That pitch just leaked middle-in.”
And right into Martinez’s wheelhouse, with Detroit’s designated hitter depositing it into the seats in left-center.
Martinez burnt his old teammates in all three games, going 5-for-13 with a pair of homers, 10 RBIs and five runs. His .326 batting average in 126 games ranked fourth in the AL.
“He’s the one that’s really carrying their ballclub,” Duncan said. “Victor has become ‘Mr. Clutch.’ The way Victor’s swinging the bat, their (lineup is) about as good as it gets right now.”
Duncan’s homers in the second and fourth innings accounted for two of Cleveland’s three hits off Verlander, who allowed four runs and struck out eight over six innings to win for the 10th time in as many starts.
The Indians’ final two runs also came courtesy of the long ball, with Lonnie Chisenhall hitting his fourth of the season off Detroit reliever Phil Coke in the seventh.
Cleveland needs to put together a substantial win streak to stay in the division race, opening a four-game series in Chicago tonight. The Indians are 3-7 against the White Sox this year — 2-3 on the road.
“We need to keep going out there and playing,” Acta said. “You can’t give up. Things can change in a week, but we have to start with Day 1.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Fan him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
