CLEVELAND: The Indians’ “bullpen game” was largely a success for most of the night, but a tough seventh inning and a quiet night offensively led to a 6-2 loss to the Houston Astros on Monday at Progressive Field.
In an attempt to give struggling No. 5 starting pitcher Josh Tomlin some time off and to align the rotation a little more in their favor for the stretch run against divisional opponents, the Indians attempted to piece together the game using only the bullpen, something that was largely possible due to roster expansion.
The Indians used eight pitchers to get through nine innings, with only the night’s starter, Michael Clevinger, rookie Perci Garner and Cody Anderson throwing more than one inning. The Indians entered the seventh inning still battling in a tight game, trailing 3-2.
That’s when the hope for attaching a win to the unorthodox bullpen game largely evaporated.
Dan Otero began the inning, allowing a single and striking out Alex Bregman before being taken out in favor of Bryan Shaw, the night’s sixth pitcher. Shaw gave up a single to Jose Altuve and then walked Carlos Correa to load the bases with one out.
Yulieski Gurriel drove a fly ball to center field just deep enough to score George Springer, who slid in ahead of Rajai Davis’ throw and Roberto Perez’s attempted tag. Evan Gattis then grounded a ball to second base, but the would-be third out turned into another run when Jason Kipnis’ throw pulled Mike Napoli off the bag, allowing Altuve to score. It was Kipnis’ second error of the night.
Colby Rasmus followed by reaching on an infield dribbler to the right side, extending the Astros’ lead to 6-2.
Clevinger threw 1⅔ innings, as the Indians handed him the ball to start the game but didn’t want to see him advance too far because he’ll remain a reliever for the time being. Garner threw 2⅔ innings, allowing just one hit and striking out two. Anderson struck out four batters in 1⅓ innings. Jeff Manship, Joe Colon and Otero all threw two thirds of an inning.
Tomlin worked the ninth inning, allowing an infield single and adding a strikeout.
The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, when Altuve drove a double off the left-field wall to score Bregman, who walked. In the third, Bregman added a two-run home run off Manship to push it to 3-0.
Jose Ramirez cut that deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the third with an RBI single off Astros starter Mike Fiers that scored Francisco Lindor, who doubled in part thanks to a swim move slide that was needed after Teoscar Hernandez’s throw from right field beat him to the base.
In the fifth, Mike Napoli crushed a solo home run, his 30th of the season. It was his first home run since Aug. 11. With it, he became the first Indians hitter to hit that mark since Grady Sizemore in 2008, and the first right-handed batter to do it since Ellis Burks in 2002.
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Indians, whose lead slipped to 4½ games over the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central Division.
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 and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ