Losing Streak Hits 10 Games as Twins Batter Indians, 14-3

The nightmare continues for the Indians, as their losing streak hit 10 games after a 14-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. The Indians, now 50-59 on the season, continue their tumble from relevancy as they are now 9.5 games back in the AL Central.

Things started out promisingly enough, with starter Zach McAllister striking out two in his first inning of work, followed by the Indians leading off the game with three straight baserunners. However despite there being nobody out, the Indians managed only one run in that first inning, from a Carlos Santana double play grounder.

And then things got ugly, quickly. The Twins received back-to-back home runs from Josh Willingham and Justin Morneau to open the top of the second. Ryan Domuit doubled, and then McAllister was able to retire the next two batters before walking Jamey Carroll. After a Jason Kipnis throwing error extended the inning (and allowed Domuit to score), the Twins unloaded on McAllister, including RBI singles from Ben Revere and Justin Morneau and an RBI double from Joe Mauer. Josh Tomlin replaced McAllister in the inning, and gave up a three-run home run to Domuit, batting again in the inning, before getting the final out in the inning.

Morneau homered in the fourth inning for two more runs, and Joe Mauer tacked on an RBI double in the sixth. Carlos Santana would hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth, but by that time the Indians’s fate had already been decided. Willingham would receive another RBI from a fielder’s choice in the eighth.

By the bottom of the ninth it was obvious even the Indians were done with this game, as Ezequiel Carrera failed to run out the game-ending double play groundout. The Twins cruised to a 14-3 win as the Tribe’s losing streak hit 10 games.

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The Good: Not too many positives to take away from this one, other than Carlos Santana continuing his power surge with another home run and rookie Cody Allen continued to impress with a hitless, scoreless inning of relief work. And, hey, eight of those runs given up were unearned.

The Bad: Maybe McAllister was due for a regression, but he simply imploded in the second, once again unable to overcome a defensive miscue. The Indians’ offense wasn’t much better, leaving 14 runners on base and only third baseman Jose Lopez managed more than one hit off Twins pitching.

 The “Huh?”: Home plate umpire Jim Joyce bothered to call a balk on Indians reliever Joe Smith in the top of the ninth…while the score was 14-3.