Cleveland: The Indians squandered an effectively wild outing by Carlos Carrasco in a 4-1 loss the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field on Easter Sunday.
Carrasco (1-1) allowed two runs on four hits and five walks in 6⅔ innings. He also struck out five. The decisive — and really, only — blow against Carrasco came in the second inning. After a single by Tyler Collins, Alex Avila, one of the hottest hitters in the league to start the season, drove a two-run home run to left field, putting the Tigers up 2-0.
That home run proved to be the difference on a day Tigers (8-4) starter Matt Boyd (2-1) allowed just one run in six innings, in large part because of a changeup the Indians struggled to handle.
“The changeup kind of took the sting out of our bats,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Sneaky fastball. Real good changeup. He could throw it anytime, any count. And it’s a good one.”
The Indians (5-7) were held scoreless until the sixth. Michael Brantley and Edwin Encarnacion each singled with one out. Brantley then stole third, allowing him to score a few pitches later on a sacrifice fly by Jose Ramirez to cut the Tigers’ lead to 2-1. With the tying run on second, though, Boyd struck out Brandon Guyer, the Indians’ lefty-masher, to end the inning.
Miguel Cabrera answered in the eighth with an RBI single up the middle off Bryan Shaw. After Cabrera exited the game with lower back tightness, JaCoby Jones entered as a pinch runner and later scored on a wild pitch by Zach McAllister.
On a sleepy Easter Sunday, the Indians lineup was never able to threaten the Tigers’ lead against closer Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.
It was the Indians’ third consecutive series loss since they opened the season by sweeping the Texas Rangers. They went 2-4 on this home stand, all against American League Central opponents.
“Last year we weren’t in first place until late May, maybe early June,” Francisco Lindor said about the club’s slow start. “We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve just got to make sure we stay within ourselves, not try and do too much and continue to compete.”
Other than a 13-run rout of Justin Verlander Saturday night, Indians hitters were stagnant throughout the home stand, averaging 2.8 runs in the other five games.
“We are doing it, we’re just not hitting at the right time,” Lindor said. “We’re just not doing situational hitting right now. But I feel like guys picked it up a little bit, guys started hitting it a little more.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ.