The Indians limped into the All-Star break Sunday, losing to the Blue Jays 7-1 at Progressive Field in their final game of the first half.

Carlos Carrasco took the loss after being roughed up for five runs in just three innings.

Cleveland suffered three losses in the four-game series with Toronto.

CLEVELAND – It doesn’t pay to pitch to Jose Bautista. Actually, it does – you pitch to him and you pay dearly.

The Indians learned that lesson the hard way Saturday night at Progressive Field, with Bautista’s leadoff homer in the 10th inning off closer Chris Perez lifting the Blue Jays to a 5-4 win.

It was one of two homers on the night and the third of the series for Bautista, who leads the majors with 31 homers on the season, a year after posting a big league-high 54 homers.

“We fought until the end, but Bautista pretty much beat us,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta, whose team lost for the second time in three games to Toronto but still maintained its half-game lead over the Tigers in the Central Division standings. “What he’s doing right now is pretty ridiculously good.”

It was the fifth multihomer game of the season for Bautista, who put the Jays in front 2-1 with a two-out solo homer in the third off Indians starter Josh Tomlin.

Toronto scored once in the first and never surrendered the lead, though the Indians tied the game twice before Bautista’s final blast.

The Indians got an uncharacteristic subpar outing from Tomlin, who allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits over six innings. The right-hander surrendered three of his runs in the first four innings.

“I definitely didn’t have very good stuff,” said Tomlin, who had won three of his previous four starts without a loss. “The command wasn’t there all the way tonight. I left too many pitches over the plate. I just tried to battle as much as I could.”

Tomlin has pitched at least five innings in each of his first 30 career starts, the only MLB pitcher to accomplish that since 1919, but he was outperformed by Toronto starter Brandon Morrow.

Morrow allowed three runs on just three hits, striking out eight over eight innings.

The right-hander surrendered only two hits over the first five innings, but one of them was a big one, with Grady Sizemore tying the game at 3 on a two-run homer in the fourth.

With Morrow out of the game and Jon Rauch on to close it out for Toronto, the Indians offense, which went scoreless over the four previous innings, came to life in the ninth.

Travis Hafner got it started with a leadoff single, then was replaced by pinch runner Austin Kearns. Both Carlos Santana and Sizemore made outs before Travis Buck offered up a quality at-bat in a pressure-packed situation.

After falling behind 0-2 on two called strikes, Buck worked an 11-pitch at-bat before stroking a double off the wall in left-center to score Kearns with the tying run.

The celebration was short-lived with Bautista connecting on a 1-0 fastball that was designated for the the outside corner and low but wound up over the middle of the plate.

“The way he’s going, he doesn’t even foul off pitches,” Acta said of Bautista, who has homered in six of his last nine games and nine of his last 17. “He squares everything up. Right now, he reminds me of the way Barry Bonds was in his prime. It’s pretty impressive.”

Acta was asked if he thought of walking Bautista prior to the pivotal at-bat.

“You can’t put the go-ahead run on first with no outs, plus, that’s my closer,” he said. “There’s no one better to try to get him out than Chris Perez.”

But the ingredients were there for a recipe for disaster with Perez facing the most dangerous hitter in baseball in the ninth.

It was a non-save situation for Perez, who has not fared well in those as of late. The right-hander has allowed runs in three of his last four outings without a save on the line, twice surrendering game-winning homers in that situation.

What was a strong possibility became reality when Perez grooved the fastball to Bautista.

“It sounded good off the bat, but it was pretty high,” Perez said. “I didn’t know if he got enough of it, but it kept going and going.”

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

TODAY

• WHO: Cleveland vs. Toronto
• TIME: 1:05
• WHERE: Progressive Field
• PITCHERS: Carrasco (8-5, 3.95 ERA) vs. Cecil (1-4, 6.37)
• TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

OK, Indians, I’m on board.

I still don’t believe you can win the World Series or even the Division Series, but I do think you can win the Central Division – your only route to the postseason this year.

Why?

Mainly because of the – no offense, here – mediocre division you play in, with two of the four teams still alive in the race (Chicago and Minnesota) sporting sub-.500 records.

Detroit, which trailed you by a half game in the standings through Friday, might be a little better than you, but they haven’t proven it yet. Meanwhile, you’ve shown throughout the first half of the season that you are good enough to contend with anyone in your division.

That’s what being in first place for the majority of the first 3½ months of the regular season says.

What you have on Detroit is pitching. Without Shin-Soo Choo, who wasn’t doing much anyway, you have only injury-prone Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera to carry your offense.

The Tigers, led by Miguel Cabrera and two of your former teammates – Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta – can outslug you.

But with two starting pitchers – Josh Tomlin and Justin Masterson – maybe three, if you add Carlos Carrasco into the mix, that give you a chance to win nearly every time they take the mound, and one of the best bullpens in the American League, you can outpitch them.

Don’t they say pitching wins championships?

That’s not all. You guys are resilient, as evidenced by the 20 comeback wins you had posted through Friday to go along with your league-leading 14 victories in your last at-bat.

You were questioned when you got off to that blazing hot start and called a fluke. Then when you came back down to earth a bit, you were counted out on numerous occasions. But you’re still standing heading into the All-Star break.

Yes, you have to do it again in the second half without Choo for the majority of it, and with suspect players such as Matt LaPorta, Austin Kearns, Travis Buck and Lonnie Chisenhall in the lineup on a regular basis.

But you’ve got enough to hang on in the Central Division. And after already proving as much for 87 games, you believe that, don’t you? Because that’s half the battle.

You know you’re good enough to compete with the likes of the Tigers, White Sox and Twins. Heck, plenty out there are. So go out in the second half of the season and prove it.

Show these people that call themselves Indians fans, yet haven’t shown up all year for their first-place team, that they were wrong not to support you, while rewarding those that have in the process.

Again, I’m talking about winning the division, nothing crazy like winning Cleveland’s first world championship since 1948, or even an American League title.

Then again, you guys have already proven me wrong plenty of times this season. Go ahead and do it again.

Chris’ weekly power poll

• Philadelphia Phillies: It’s going to take a lot to knock these guys off the top of the pile.

• Boston Red Sox: A recent surge has left the BoSox atop the AL East standings.

• New York Yankees: A couple of losses to the Indians have helped take the Yanks down a few pegs.

• Atlanta Braves: The Bravos have managed to stay in the race with Philadelphia, and that’s an impressive feat.

• Texas Rangers: Thus far, the defending AL champs have withstood challenges from a couple teams in the West.

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

Jose Bautista hit a home run off Indians closer Chris Perez to lead off the 10th inning and lift the Blue Jays to a 5-4 victory over Cleveland on Saturday at Progressive Field.

It was one of two homers in the game for Bautista, who leads the majors with 31 homers.

Cleveland tied it in the ninth on Travis Buck’s two-out double.