CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) - The Cleveland Indians found themselves down early against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night, and tried to work their way back into the contest as the game progressed. Unfortunately, they eventually found themselves on the short end of a 7-3 final at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.
Tribe right-hander Eli Morgan (2-6) took the loss in a 4.1-inning performance, allowing eight hits and four earned runs, along with two walks and four strikeouts. Rangers lefty Taylor Hearn (3-4) took the win in a 5-inning outing in which he gave up five hits and three runs, along with six K’s.
"I was getting ahead of them, but I wasn't making good 0-2, 1-2 pitches to put them away early," Morgan said after the game. "Just bad offspeed with two strikes...filling up the zone a lot, and when I'm doing that, that gives me more room to expand with the offspeed, and I didn't take advantage of that."
Texas got off to a fast start in the opening frame, as Nathaniel Lowe roped a 3-run home run off Morgan that landed over the right center field wall. That was the start of a good night for the Rangers first baseman, who went 5-5 with three RBIs on a trio of singles, a double, and the homer.
"After that first inning, I thought [Eli] competed," Indians interim manager DeMarlo Hale said afterward. "Gave us a chance, kept the game where it was at, and I thought when he got into the fifth inning with some traffic, it was time to get a fresh arm in there, and try to minimize damage."
Morgan settled down, and the Indians returned the favor in the bottom of the 3rd when Daniel Johnson roped Hearn’s off-speed pitch over the right-field wall to make it 3-1 Texas.
The Rangers nabbed another run in the bottom of the fifth, after Morgan allowed an infield single and a double. Morgan was replaced by Justin Garza, who forced a groundout but allowed Adolis Garcia to score from third base to make it 4-1 Rangers.
In the bottom half, however, Yu Chang hit a solo homer over the center field wall to reduce the Rangers lead to 4-2, and in the following inning, Franmil Reyes managed a sacrifice fly to score Amed Rosario and make the score 4-3.
Cleveland looked to be threatening further scores in the bottom of the seventh after putting two runners on with nobody out, but Ernie Clement popped out on a bunt attempt, and Myles Straw lined into a double play to relief pitcher Josh Sborz, who tagged Chang up at second.
That would be the Indians’ final chance at a late-game comeback, as the Rangers would end the scoring as they began: a 3-run home run, this time from DJ Peters off Tribe reliever Bryan Shaw in the top of the ninth.
Texas relievers Jharel Cotton and Brett Martin shut down the Cleveland lineup in the eighth and ninth innings to close the contest.
The Indians (61-62) will face Texas (44-81) again on Wednesday, with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. at Progressive Field. Zach Plesac (7-4, 4.87) is expected to start against Rangers right-hander Spencer Howard (0-3, 6.56).
