The Yankees hit Josh Tomlin early, often and hard Monday night on the way to a 7-1 victory over the Indians. The Indians have lost three straight, matching their longest losing streak of the season.
NEW YORK -- Not being able to beat left-handers is one thing. In the Indians' blueprint for 2012, that was considered collateral damage. Something they could live with because their left-handed dominated offense still held a statistical advantage over right-handed pitching.
What happens when they can't beat a right-handed starter with a lineup stacked with nine left- handed hitters? Well, let's just say this season, built on a calculated gamble, may have undergone a tiny shift Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
Veteran right-hander Hiroki Kuroda showed the rest of the American League how to beat the Indians by pitching the power-hitting Yankees to a 7-1 victory in front of more than 42,000 fans in the Bronx. Kuroda, facing the Indians for the first time in his career, kept the ball away from their left-handers early, busted them inside in the middle innings and finished them off with a sharp-diving split finger.
The Indians are on a cold streak on the field and in the front office, where the computers never stop spitting out formulas to help them compensate for being a small-market team bereft of raw baseball talent.
The Indians have lost three straight, matching their longest losing streak of the season. In those three games, they have scored three runs. They have scored five on the first four games of this 10-game trip.
"Unfortunately, there are times when a right-handed pitcher is going to be able to get zeroed in on our [all left-handed] lineup," said Tribe outfielder Johnny Damon. "The better the pitcher, the more he can exploit it. Maybe a younger guy, or a guy who doesn't have two plus pitches or so, might have more trouble.
"Kuroda seems like he can throw four or five pitches [for strikes] at a given time. He found out what was working. He knew we were behind and that we were a patient team, so he was getting strike one and did a great job tonight."
Over the weekend, Houston lefties Dallas Keuchel and J.A. Happ thumped the Indians while hardly breaking a sweat. Then along came Kuroda (7-7, 3.40 ERA), who held them to one run on five hits in seven-plus innings.
"This is the long roller coaster of the season," said Tribe manager Manny Acta. "You hit, you don't hit. You pitch, you don't pitch. You score runs, you don't score runs."
Things could have been different if Josh Tomlin (3-5, 5.70) hadn't given up six runs on six hits in three innings. He needed 80 pitches to do that much damage, and the Yankees seemed to hit most of them hard.
Robinson Cano hit a two-run double in the first inning after Curtis Granderson walked and Mark Teixeira singled off the right-field wall.
Dewayne Wise hit a two-run homer in the second to make it 4-0. It was Wise's first homer of the season and the first of three Tomlin allowed.
In the third, Cano and Nick Swisher hit consecutive homers for a 6-0 lead. Tomlin has allowed 11 homers this season.
In two starts at Yankee Stadium, Tomlin is 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA. He has allowed 18 hits and 12 runs in eight innings.
"You could tell from the get-go that Josh didn't have command of his pitches," said Acta. "It's very rare to see him go 19 pitches to the first two hitters. He threw 80 pitches in the first three innings. He's usually in the seventh inning with 80 pitches."
The Yankees showed Tomlin why they lead the big leagues with 115 homers, 37 of them coming in the past 20 games.
"This is the wrong place and the wrong team to pitch behind in the count and up in the zone," said Acta.
Tomlin, a model of consistency last year, has been anything but that this year. Before Monday's game, the Indians sent another inconsistent starter, Jeanmar Gomez, to Class AAA Columbus. Acta said Tomlin has not reached that point.
"Josh's problem hasn't been as pronounced as Gomez," said Acta. "If he doesn't work things out, he could probably be moved to the bullpen. But that's not something we're thinking about right now."
The Indians scored their only run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Jason Kipnis. Lonnie Chisenhall hit a leadoff single and went to third on Shin-Soo Choo's double. Clay Rapada replaced Kuroda, and Asdrubal Cabrera greeted him with a liner to right, but Swisher made a nice lunging catch.
Kipnis followed with his sacrifice fly.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/06/cleveland_indians_left-handed.html
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