Indians walked off, but Bauer (9 K's) dazzles

TORONTO -- There’s just something about Indians starter Trevor Bauer that the Blue Jays haven’t been able to figure out this season. Unfortunately for Bauer, the 1-0 lead he handed to the bullpen in the eighth inning wasn’t enough, as Cleveland suffered a 2-1 walk-off loss in the bottom of the 10th.

After throwing seven no-hit innings against Toronto in his second start of the season in early April, Bauer tossed another gem at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night. The right-hander opened the game with another four hitless innings and pushed through 7 2/3 scoreless, with the first hit he surrendered being a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. double in the fifth.

• Box score

The Blue Jays tied things up in the ninth on a Justin Smoak home run, and Tyler Olson surrendered the walk-off single to Smoak on a ground ball that just snuck past a diving Jose Ramirez the following inning.

“Trevor pitched terrific. He battled his rear end off,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Especially on the heels of not feeling really good this morning, I thought he was terrific. He gave everything he had. He always does.”

Bauer said that he felt OK during the game, and he certainly pitched like it. His four-seamer sat just shy of his average velocity at 94 mph, according to Statcast. Bauer felt particularly good about his two-seamer -- though he suspects that a “flattering camera angle” at Rogers Centre might have done him some favours until he has a chance to pore over the movement data himself.

Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said that his hitters were kept off balance by Bauer all game, as Bauer opened the night leaning on his softer stuff before cranking things up with his fastball as the game went on.

“I thought I was good, given the circumstances,” Bauer said. “I walked too many guys, especially when I walked the two guys to lead off an inning. It cost me a lot of pitches, but overall, I thought I did pretty well.”

Cleveland still owns a 13-4 record in July, which has catapulted the Indians into a close pursuit of the Twins atop the American League Central while they look to extend their small cushion in the AL Wild Card race. It’s also run parallel to new waves of trade rumors surrounding Bauer and the usually dominant closer Brad Hand ahead of the July 31 Trade Deadline.

Francona said before the game that Tribe president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti spoke to both Bauer and Hand recently to let them know that if anything serious ever comes up, he will talk to them about it directly, which Francona expects to help both players through this stretch.

Hand allowed the game-tying home run to Smoak, just his second blown save of the season. He’s also allowed a run to score in three of his last four appearances stretching back to July 15 against Detroit. Francona doesn’t see a common thread running through those appearances, though, outside of a couple of breaking balls that have caught too much of the plate. He was supportive of his closer, who has racked up 27 saves this season.

“We’re lucky to have him, because when that happens, it hurts,” Francona said. “It doesn’t happen very often because of how good he is.”