Bats can't balance Carrasco's few mistakes

The Indians’ 3-0 loss to the Twins on Saturday night at Target Field continued a trend that has emerged in the past few days: The pitching is sturdy as ever, but the bats are still looking for a spark.

• Box score

How this dynamic for the Tribe will play out over a shortened 60-game season is yet to be determined, but typically, it’s a lot easier to deal with losses when the pitching is good and the bats go cold, rather than vice versa. The Indians, who until Friday were on a historic run of pitching, are still well-positioned in the American League Central.

A second strong outing by Carlos Carrasco, whose health issues forced him to miss almost all of 2019, was encouraging. Over two starts, he’s yielded five earned runs in 12 innings. Against the Twins, he yielded three solo homers, walked one and struck out five, and later noted how much better he’s felt since the season began.

“Last year, I just went one inning, and the second day I felt tired,” Carrasco said. “Today, I felt strong from the first inning to the last inning. I just go as hard as I can until [manager Terry Francona] takes the ball away from me. I’m happy -- not from the results today, but I feel strong.”

With the bats quiet, Carrasco walked a tightrope during his 84-pitch outing, which was defined by the solo homers -- two by the previously struggling Miguel Sanó and one by Eddie Rosario.

Sanó’s first drive was hit off a 93-mph fastball and traveled 427 feet. That one didn’t surprise Carrasco as much as the second, which was hit off a slider Carrasco said flattened at the top of the strike zone.

“That pitch, that slider just flopped,” he said. “He can hit the ball hard, out of the park, like he did tonight.”

Sanó’s homers were nearly identical in how quickly they left the park. The first, a leadoff shot in the third inning and just his second hit of the season, registered a 110.6 mph exit velocity, while his second -- another solo homer, this one to lead off the fifth -- was clocked at 110.5 mph.

They’re the second and third hardest-hit homers Carrasco has allowed since Statcast began tracking this data in 2015, behind only a 115.6-mph homer by Joey Gallo in ‘17.

Still, they were of the solo variety, and even when they come in bunches, they don’t necessarily doom a start. But the pitcher’s team has to score runs, and that’s where the Indians fell short.

“All things said, he ended up giving up three, and they were solo homers,” Francona said. “If you look up sometimes, you're playing Minnesota and you go, ‘You know what? We'll take three.’ We just didn't mount any offense at all, so three seemed like more.”

The loss marked the first time this season the Tribe has dropped two games in a row. Over the Indians' past four contests, they’ve scored a combined three runs.

“Keep the faith,” said Carrasco, whose five strikeouts moved him past Charles Nagy into seventh on the club’s all-time strikeout list with 1,238. “I’m one of those guys that trusts my teammates. Some days, we’re going to have some ups and downs. Yesterday, the game was 4-1. Today, 3-0, but we’re going to get there.”

• Notes: Pérez, Naquin, DeShields

Shortstop Francisco Lindor, who was 1-for-3 with an infield single and was one of many Tribe hitters thwarted by Kenta Maeda’s steady stream of changeups and sliders, joked, “They can throw a rosin bag right now and I’d probably pop it up.”

How can they reverse course?

“Just compete, compete, compete, compete and make adjustments,” Lindor said. “We have very good players on the team, and we can hit. We were doing it during Summer Camp. We were doing it in Spring Training. We showed signs of what we can do.”