CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – There was no lead for the Indians to blow Tuesday night against the Cubs.
Chicago broke Cleveland’s streak of allowing four or fewer runs at 17 games to start the season by pushing five across in the top of the sixth and they never looked back, winning 7-1 Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
“Hopefully we keep pitching and our bats warm up a little bit,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Indians starter Adam Plutko, called upon to start in place of Mike Clevinger who was put on the restricted list for his exploits over the weekend in Chicago, labored for four innings but only gave up one run, which came in the second inning – a two-out RBI single to Jason Heyward.
“I have to give a lot of credit to the Cubs, they took a lot of team at-bats,” Plutko said.
“Overall, my process, I’m happy with.”
Heyward also greeted Tribe reliever Phil Maton by clubbing a three-run home run in the fifth to cap the offensive outburst by the Cubs. Heyward went 3-4 and drove in four.
The plan entering the game was to cap Plutko at around 80 pitches. He threw 78 while allowing a run on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts in suffering his first loss of the season.
“I thought he battled like crazy,” Francona said. “He battled but he only gave up one [run].”
Oliver Perez threw a scoreless fifth inning, but Cam Hill was not as fortunate in the sixth.
Hill was roughed up for four runs in 2/3 of an inning of work.
Hill departed after giving up a walk to lead off the inning to Kris Bryant, who scored, a single to Javier Baez, who also scored, hit Kyle Schwarber with a pitch, allowed a sac fly and then an RBI single to Ian Happ putting Cleveland in a 3-0 hole with two runners aboard as he left the mound.
Then came Heyward’s blast.
Jason Kipnis returned to Progressive Field for the first time since joining the Cubs and the former Indians second baseman doubled in the third as well as walked and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.
Prior to the game the Indians honored Kipnis with a tribute video.
“It was fun seeing Kip,” Plutko said. “I’m glad they did that video. He meant a lot to a lot of people. It was nice and he deserves every bit of that.”
Cubs starter Jon Lester improved to 2-0 with an impressive six-inning performance that saw him allow three hits and strike out four.
Offensively, it remains a struggle for the Indians. Cleveland batters were retired in order five times.
“We’re in that mode right now where we’re trying to hit everything,” Francona said.
The Indians got a pair aboard with two outs in the first and two on with one out in the fourth but failed to score.
Franmil Reyes, who had two of Cleveland’s four hits, helped the Indians avoid the shutout by ripping a two-out RBI double to right center scoring Francisco Lindor from first in the bottom of the sixth.
