Twins 3, Indians 2 (10): No one's home
Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011
By Jim Ingraham
JIngraham@News-Herald.com
Travis Hafner is hurt. Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana are doing nothing.
That, in a nutshell, is why the Indians have lost 11 of their last 15 games — including a quiet 3-2 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday that dragged a manhole cover over a pungent 1-6 homestand that now has the Indians on the brink of relinquishing first place in the Central Division for the first time since April 6, the fifth day of the season.
"A very poor homestand," said Manager Manny Acta. "Very deflating."
At the start of the homestand, the Indians had a five-game lead over second-place Detroit. By the end of the homestand, the lead was down to 1 1/2 games, following the Tigers' 7-3 loss at Texas. To make matters worse, the Indians' next seven games are against the Yankees and Tigers — all on the road.
We're about to find out if the Indians are contenders or pretenders.
The needle will continue to lean toward the latter if the Indians' big hitters don't start hitting big.
"We're not getting big hits. It's not a secret. I need to do a better job of getting big hits, and so does everybody else," said Michael Brantley, who had three of the Indians' 10 hits Wednesday.
"It seems like if we don't hit a home run, we don't score," said Acta.
Both of the Indians' runs Wednesday came on solo home runs — by Grady Sizemore in the sixth inning and a dramatic game-tying, two-out homer by Jack Hannahan in the bottom of the ninth.
However, in the top of the 10th, closer Chris Perez gave up a two-out double to .153-hitting Drew Butera and an RBI single to Ben Revere.
The Indians have now lost eight of their last nine home games, but still — incredibly — own the best home record in the American League at 20-12.
But this is a free fall that isn't going to be halted until the players the Indians count on to do the heavy lifting start flexing their muscles.
Hafner was, but he's on the disabled list — and the Tribe's offense has vanished without him.
Consider the following:
-- The Indians are 8-13 since Hafner got hurt. In those 13 losses, the Indians have scored 18 runs, an average of 1.4 per game.
-- At the time Hafner got hurt — his last game was May 17 — the Indians were averaging 5.4 runs per game. Without Hafner, they are averaging 3.2 runs per game. Throw out a 13-9 win and a 12-4 win, and in the other 19 games they've played without Hafner, they are averaging 2.3 runs per game.
-- Perhaps most astounding of all: The Indians have been shut out five times in the 21 games Hafner has missed, and in 13 of the 21 games they have scored two runs or fewer.
"We're getting very poor at-bats," said Acta. "People are expanding the (strike) zone and trying to do too much."
As a result, the Indians are doing too little — especially de facto No. 3 and 4 hitters Choo and Santana. With each passing loss, Acta seems to lose a little more patience. He now refers to them as "the two guys in the middle of the lineup."
Choo is hitting .240. Santana is hitting .228. Choo and Santana are being counted on to be big run producers, but with runners in scoring position, Choo is hitting .172 and Santana .163. And it's June 9.
"We continue to struggle in the middle of the lineup, and it's snowballing," said Acta. "We need those guys to start swinging the bat."
In the meantime, the Indians are wasting a lot of good pitching. Wednesday, it was Justin Masterson's turn to wait for the offensive support that never came.
Masterson was terrific again, pitching eight innings and holding the Twins to two runs while not walking a batter. Forget winning, he had to be satisfied with avoiding the loss.
Masterson hasn't won a game since April 26. In eight starts since, he has 3.79 ERA — and no wins. He's 0-4 in those eight starts, during which the Indians have scored just 16 runs.
"It's frustrating, but for the team, not for me personally," said Masterson. "We just need to start getting a couple clutch hits here and there and we'll be back in it."
That seemed to be the prevailing opinion after the final loss in a homestand on which, said, Acta, "Everything that could go wrong went wrong."
Said Brantley, one of the few Indians not in a slump: "We're missing that clutch hit, that big hit to get us going. Once we break through that barrier, we'll be fine."