Just one pitch stood between Zach Plesac and another dominant outing on Monday night at Great American Ball Park, and the 25-year-old is making sure he learns from his mistake.

The Tribe carried a one-run lead into the sixth inning, but a 93-mph heater from Plesac caught just a tad too much of the plate and slugger Joey Votto punished it into the right-field seats to give the Reds a 3-2 victory in the first of four games in the 2020 Ohio Cup. The game began after a two-hour, two-minute rain delay in Cincinnati.

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While the fastball wasn’t quite as high in the zone as Plesac was hoping, the problem wasn’t as much his pitch as it was his focus. Shogo Akiyama continued to inch farther off first base, causing Plesac -- who has arguably the best pickoff move by a righty in the game -- to throw over multiple times. Instead of being completely focused on the threat at the plate, Akiyama became a distraction.

“Sometimes that’s happened to him -- that’s part of maturation,” said Sandy Alomar Jr., who managed in place of an absent Terry Francona. “That was a little hiccup in the game that I thought he could have just focused more on the hitter.”

“Yeah. I mean, in that situation, you’ve got a good hitter at the plate,” Plesac said. “The focus should be more on him. You know, a learning experience for me. I saw a guy get a big lead over there. He was kind of playing with my feet, so I was going to play with him back and see if I could get an out.”

That one mistake doesn’t take away the fact that Plesac still tossed seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts. After his masterful eight shutout frames in Wednesday’s loss to the White Sox, the Indians are quickly realizing just how much depth they have in their rotation.

Plesac had battled with Adam Plutko for the fifth starting spot during Summer Camp, and now, he is proving why he earned the role. Despite his youth, Plesac has also already begun showing how much he’s been able to slow down the game in his sophomore campaign.

“I’ve seen major improvement and development in his separation of pitches,” Alomar Jr. said prior to the game. “He has developed an outstanding changeup. His four-seam fastball is pretty good, straight fastball that stays on line with the corners. His command has improved, his tempo and his confidence. … Hitting and pitching, if you have confidence, you can accomplish a lot of things. That’s one of the things with Plesac. He doesn’t lack confidence.”

But for the second consecutive start, Plesac's efforts were for naught. For the first time this season, the Indians were defeated in a game in which they scored first. In the first frame, Francisco Lindor launched a solo homer to right-center field and Oscar Mercado scored on a wild pitch in the second to give Plesac a little bit of breathing room that the starting rotation hadn’t had over the past few games. Instead, a long ball by Nick Castellanos and the two-run big fly by Votto were enough to hand the Tribe its fourth consecutive loss.

Over the past six games, the Tribe has plated just six runs. Carlos Santana’s single after Lindor’s homer in the first accounted for the team’s first back-to-back hits since the sixth inning of Thursday’s game against the Twins. The offense got off to a shaky start to the year, and it has only gotten cooler since the club departed for its first road trip. While trying to figure out a way to wake the bats up, Cleveland will also have to make sure its pitching staff doesn’t put too much pressure on itself to make up for the lack of run support.

“It’s a thing of control what you can control,” Indians pitching coach Carl Willis said. “It’s a cliche. But our job as a pitching staff is to give our team an opportunity to win the game. There’s nothing beyond that that we can do. We’re really trying to focus on staying healthy, staying prepared and focusing on getting outs, because every out is important.

“In a short season, really challenging these guys to stay focused and do their part regardless of the score, regardless of the situation and regardless of what’s going on the other side of the ball. I think they’re up to that task.”

Up next
Shane Bieber has gotten off to the hottest start to the season that any pitcher could ask for. In fact, he's tied with Karl Spooner for the most strikeouts (27) in the first two outings of a year in Major League history. The question is, will he be able to continue his unbelievable momentum? In his first outing, Bieber fanned 14 batters and tossed six scoreless frames against the Royals. He topped that performance with eight scoreless and 13 strikeouts last time out against the Twins. Bieber will get the ball again on Tuesday, while righty Tyler Mahle will get the start for the Reds. First pitch is slated for 6:10 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV.