Cleveland Indians: Josh Tomlin’s home run problems are resurfacing

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Josh Tomlin had another rough outing Tuesday night, bringing back a problem that plagued him in 2016.

Remember when Josh Tomlin couldn’t stop allowing home runs in 2016 and lost his starting job because of it?

A familiar trend is beginning to emerge for the Cleveland Indians starter as Tomlin allowed three home runs Tuesday night in the team’s 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

A 5-2 lead seemed to be safe until Manny Machado hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth, his second of the night.

Tomlin has now allowed five home runs in his last two starts, reminding fans of last season when Tomlin allowed 10 home runs in August, leading to a demotion that didn’t last long due to injuries to others in the rotation.  And if the home runs keep piling up again, another demotion may be in store for Tomlin.

Once Danny Salazar returns, Terry Francona will have to decide if he want to keep going with Tomlin, whose ERA currently sits at 6.07, or ride with Mike Clevinger and see what the young pitcher can do.

This would not need to be a permanent demotion for Tomlin, but he has rarely been effective this season and some time to work on things could help out.

He has already allowed 15 runs in 19.2 innings of work in June and had a disastrous start to the year in April. He has only had three great starts this season, which all came in the month of May.

Tuesday’s start was the first time Tomlin allowed three home runs in a game this year, but the third proved to be deadly. If he goes out and allows one or two solo shots a game, fans can live with that. But when there are runners on base, flat cutters over the middle of the plate just won’t do.

Clevinger hasn’t had a great start to the year, but he or even Ryan Merritt could be called upon if Tomlin can’t get back to his successful ways. The time of the year has passed where we can say it is still early, and the offense can’t be relied upon to put up big numbers every five days just to support Tomlin allowing five or six to the opposing team.

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A wouldn’t need to happen until Salazar is ready to return, but don’t be surprised if the veteran Tomlin loses his spot when that time comes.