CLEVELAND — It was an all-around sour night at Progressive Field on Tuesday.

Asdrubal Cabrera, right, tests his ankle as a trainer watches in the third inning. (AP photo.)

Not only did the Indians lose a game to the dreaded New York Yankees and former Cleveland ace CC Sabathia, they also lost All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to an injury.

With Sabathia dominating his former mates for seven innings, the Indians limped to a 9-2 defeat, as the Yankees’ vaunted lineup outhit Cleveland’s inconsistent one 17-7.

In the midst of the loss, Cabrera left the game after suffering a right ankle sprain while making an off-balance throw to second base and landing awkwardly on his right foot. He is listed as day-to-day, but it would be surprising to see Cabrera in the lineup for the series finale tonight.

A pair of baseball’s hottest pitchers — Sabathia and Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco — were on the mound to start the second game of the series, but only one looked the part.

Sabathia (12-4) allowed just five hits — one over the first three innings — and struck out 11. Carrasco, who owned a 7-2 record and 2.55 ERA over his previous nine starts, was in trouble early, allowing five runs in the second inning. He gave up six runs on 10 hits in just four innings.

With Sabathia in control, the second inning spelled doom for Carrasco and the Indians.

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“That second inning pretty much did us in,” manager Manny Acta said. “That was too much against Sabathia. Carlos didn’t have very good fastball command and I didn’t feel he was aggressive with his fastball.”

After allowing a one-out single to Nick Swisher in the second, Carrasco walked two straight to load the bases and could have gotten out of it when Francisco Cervelli grounded to Cabrera on a tailor-made double-play ball. But second baseman Cord Phelps made a poor throw on the turn and bounced the ball to first baseman Carlos Santana, who couldn’t come up with the throw.

Derek Jeter followed with a two-run double and Curtis Granderson hit his first of two home runs off Carrasco for two more runs and a 5-0 New York lead.

“We have to turn that double play but the reason we were in that situation was because we walked two hitters at the bottom of the order,” Acta said. “It’s part of the game. You have to turn the page. You still have to attack hitters and be aggressive.”

Carrasco’s performance paled in comparison to his last start against the Yankees — a dominant effort in New York (seven shutout innings, five hits and seven strikeouts in a 1-0 win June 13).

“I didn’t have my fastball command last time but I was able to find it,” said Carrasco, who walked the bases loaded in the first inning at New York but was able to emerge unscathed. “This time, I didn’t do that. I tried to do better, but I allowed another run (in the fourth on Granderson’s leadoff homer).”

Sabathia, whom Carrasco beat in New York, toyed with Indians hitters as the game wore on. He allowed a leadoff single to Austin Kearns followed by a walk to Phelps in the fifth before striking out Lou Marson, Michael Brantley and Lonnie Chisenhall.

In the seventh, Sabathia surrendered a leadoff double to Grady Sizemore and a one-out walk to Phelps before striking out Marson and Brantley again.

“We don’t match up very good against him,” Acta said. “Our main guys in the lineup hit from the left side and he’s very good against lefties.”

The Indians employed three left-handed hitters — Sizemore, Hafner and Brantley — with the trio combining to go 2-for-12 with six strikeouts. Sizemore got both hits.

Jeter, who went hitless in his first game off the disabled list Monday, went 2-for-6, giving him 2,996 career hits on his quest for 3,000.

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

CLEVELAND — There’s not much more right-hander Josh Tomlin can do to impress manager Manny Acta, but he gave it another try in his latest start Monday.

Starting pitcher Josh Tomlin pitches in the third inning Monday. (AP photo.)

Thanks to a seven-inning effort in a 6-3 victory over the Yankees, the 26-year-old Tomlin became the first pitcher since 1919 to pitch at least five innings in each of his first 29 career outings. He surpassed Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka, who accomplished the feat in his first 28 starts.

“It’s very impressive,” Acta said. “If you go way back when, that means there were a lot of guys before him that couldn’t do that. He just passed Matsuzaka. You heard all about the stuff that he had, and here comes this little cowboy from Texas and it’s money in the bank for five innings.”

Tomlin (10-4, 3.78 ERA) has been the picture of consistency, with the same approach — throwing strikes with all four of his pitches. He’s walked only 13 batters in 1092⁄3 innings, issuing his first free pass in four starts Monday.

“If he walks one, it surprises me,” Acta said. “If he walks more, I want to blame the umpire. He’s remarkable. He knows what his game is.

“I’m not saying he’s straight to Cooperstown, but I just don’t see a guy that can throw four pitches and locate them not having a career up here.”

Many of Tomlin’s starts have been carbon copies. He has allowed three runs or fewer in 13 of his 17 starts.

“It’s a piece of cake when he pitches,” Acta said. “I don’t have to worry about controlling the running game because he does that. You just let him go out there through the sixth and seventh innings and go to the bullpen when you need to.”

Wounded Wahoos

• Right-hander Alex White was at Progressive Field on Tuesday to have his surgically repaired right middle finger examined. White, Cleveland’s first-round draft pick in 2010, made three starts for the Indians before sustaining the injury. He has begun throwing but not from the mound. Acta said White would pitch again this season, provided he does not have a setback.
• An MRI performed on Fausto Carmona’s injured right quad revealed nothing serious, but the right-hander is on the 15-day disabled list. Triple-A Columbus’ Zach McAllister (8-3, 2.97 ERA) will be promoted for Carmona’s start Thursday against Toronto.
• Acta said he is leaning toward activating first baseman Matt LaPorta (right ankle sprain) from the disabled list, rather than send him on a minor league rehab assignment. LaPorta has been on the shelf since June 18.
• Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo (broken left thumb) is still on track to return in late August, according to Acta.
• Outfielder Travis Buck (hamstring) is expected to be available today. He hasn’t played since Friday.

Minor detail

• Former first-round draft pick (fifth overall) left-hander Drew Pomeranz, is 2-2 with a 2.06 ERA in 14 starts for High-A Kinston, striking out 88 batters in 70 innings.

Roundin’ third

• Tomlin is 12-2 in 15 career starts at Progressive Field. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Tomlin is just the second MLB pitcher that debuted in the expansion era to win 12 of his first 15 starts at home. He joined Lamar Hoyt, who accomplished the same for the White Sox at Comiskey Park from 1980-82.
• The last time the Indians entered the All-Star break in first place was 1999.

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

LORAIN — No fight or flight, no bite.

Police dogs learn it from training while most criminal suspects who encounter them know it instinctively.

Lorain police Officer Craig Payne, front, with Kriss, an 18-month-old German shepherd, and Officer Eric Alten, with Garp, a 2-year-old German shepherd, new members of the Lorain K-9 unit Tuesday at the Lorain Police Department. (CT photo by Steve Manheim.)

Like the domestic violence suspect fleeing rookie police dog Kriss and his handler Officer Craig Payne on June 28. Payne said the suspect was hiding behind a fence, so Payne threw Kriss over the fence. End of chase.

“Kriss did exactly as he was trained to do, which is do a circle and bark and hold the suspect at bay,” Payne said Tuesday. “It worked out perfect.”

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Like the snapping of a collapsible baton by an officer, the sight of a police dog can be intimidating and make even a rowdy drunk reconsider tangling with cops. Rookie police dog Garp’s appearance outside a bar where patrons were refusing to disperse also changed minds.

“I got him out of the car and just started walking along the roadway,” said Officer Eric Alten, Garp’s handler. “Within about a minute or two, everybody was gone.”

The ability of Garp and Kriss — two German shepherds from the Czech Republic who hit the streets a few weeks ago — to only bite on command is crucial. After some 30 years of using dogs, the department stopped using them in 2009 because they couldn’t be controlled, said Lt. Edward Super, a department supervisor who was bitten by one of the old dogs. The Belgian shepherd attacked a janitor in the department, causing serious injuries.

“Our old dogs used to be pretty mean,” Super said. “You couldn’t get near them.”

Garp, 2, and Kriss, 18 months, are more mellow. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t trained to attack on command.

“They have great drive to work,” said Dan Bowman, head of Columbus-based Gold Shield Canine Training, where the dogs received 400 hours and the handlers received 200 hours of training. “The handlers have an exceptional work ethic. They’re very dedicated to the program.”

Bowman, an ex-Camden, N.Y., police officer, said he has trained about 500 dogs since he became a dog trainer in 1981. Gold Shield has provided dogs to some 200 police departments in Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Training, which is done on the streets of Columbus to better simulate real conditions, includes dealing with conflict, reacting to gunfire, drug detection and tracking. Garp and Kriss are cross trained to do drug detection and tracking.

Training also included Alten and Payne — who command their dogs in German — being attacked by Garp and Kriss while wearing protective clothing. “It was a real adrenaline dump,” Alten said.

Handlers take their dogs home and usually keep them after retirement, which is usually between the ages of 7 and 10 years old. Alten and Payne, both first-time handlers, said they grew up with dogs.

Payne, 32, said he became a handler because dogs are frequently used by police.

“You get to be involved in a multitude of calls,” said Payne who joined the force in 2005.

Alten, 27, said he became a handler because he was impressed by the cooperation he saw between handlers and their dogs after joining the force in 2007. Alten said he and Garp quickly bonded.

“Within the first week of having him I felt like I had another best friend,” he said. “The trust that they give to you and the loyalty, it’s just amazing.”

Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — City Council adopted the Cascade Park Redevelopment Plan, a 25-year master plan for the city’s first major park, on the same night that Mayor Bill Grace announced he is ready to accept it may be time to consider giving the park to another entity to operate.

Up until Tuesday, Grace had publicly denounced the idea of giving Cascade Park to someone else — the Lorain County Metro Parks being the most popular choice in the community. However, he now seems to be softening to the idea.

“It’s time for serious discussion about the future of the park,” he said. “Cascade Park needs millions, if not tens of millions, in improvement, and unless we are ready to start committing to that kind of investment, we need to seriously discuss turning the park over to another entity.”

Going to the taxpayers for money for the park does not seem a likely solution because repeated ballot initiatives in recent years have failed, he said.

“I’m disappointed we have not been able to rally the community support needed to preserve the park,” Grace said.

Grace stopped short of calling for a public meeting to discuss the future of Cascade Park, and Council members had little to say about the idea.

Councilman Larry Tanner, D-1st Ward, was the only Council member to offer an opinion and in doing so championed Grace for finally admitting the city can no longer adequately operate Cascade Park.

“You are 100 percent right,” Tanner said. “The Metro Parks is who we should turn Cascade Park over to, and I will do whatever it takes to make it possible.”

Tanner said Elyrians are dreaming if they think the city has $30 million to $40 million to invest in Cascade Park.

Talks about Cascade did not stop Council from accepting the donation of three parcels of land from longtime Elyrian Jack Smith for the creation of the Black River Audubon Park on West Bridge Street. The park would be just over an acre, but with its close proximity to the Black River, Smith hopes parkgoers will see it as a perfect place to sit and appreciate nature.

By accepting the property, the city agrees to Smith’s terms — that he name he requested for the park be used and the second requiring that if the city chooses not to develop a park, the land returns to his estate.

Community Development Director Angie Byington said the city’s Parks Board, which provides recommendations for the city’s park system, still has to meet to discuss what should be done with the park and maintenance plans.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.