There was only one ideal situation for seeing Angels closer Joe Smith this week as far as the Indians were concerned — sharing a handshake with their old friend during a pregame workout and reminiscing about old times would have been fine.
The Indians did not want to see him in the ninth inning.
They did not get their wish.
“I used to pull for him a lot,” manager Terry Francona said. “I don’t anymore.”
Smith closed the door on the Indians in the ninth on Monday, sealing a 6-3 loss that sent Cleveland to its fourth consecutive defeat on the current road trip. Sinkerballer Justin Masterson gave the Tribe an admirable effort, but defensive woes came back to hurt the club again in a decisive three-run push by Los Angeles in the eighth inning.
Following a three-game sweep at the hands of the Giants in San Francisco, the Indians lost their grip on the opener of this three-game set in Anaheim. Carlos Santana snapped out of a slump with a three-run homer and Masterson worked into the eighth, but a roller down the first-base line proved to be Cleveland’s undoing.
“We get a ball that’s hit 80 feet,” Francona said. “Man, that’s a great way to start the inning.”
The ground ball in question came off the bat of J.B. Shuck, who reached safely to open the eighth when first baseman Nick Swisher bobbled the ball. With the score tied at 3 at the time, Swisher’s error created an opening.
Erick Aybar, whose two-run double had knotted the score in the fifth, used a sacrifice bunt to move Shuck to second. That left Francona with the option of intentionally walking or pitching to Mike Trout with slugger Albert Pujols waiting in the on-deck circle.
“I definitely thought about walking [Trout],” Francona said. “In the middle of the night tonight, I probably will.”
Francona allowed Masterson to face Trout, who ripped a pitch into left field for a run-scoring single that put Cleveland behind for good, 4-3. Masterson then intentionally walked Pujols to get to the veteran Raul Ibanez, who had a groundout, a strikeout and an infield single to that point. The base hit was a chopper up the middle that struck Masterson and died in the infield grass.
Even with his pitch count above 111, Masterson felt confident about facing Ibanez again.
“I felt like we executed some good pitches,” Masterson said.
The big right-hander hung a sinker — rather than burying it low in the strike zone or bouncing it in the dirt — and Ibanez delivered a two-run triple to right-center that put the game out of reach.
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