Something had to give when the Indians and Rangers — two of baseball’s hottest teams — opened a three-game set on Monday at Progressive Field. Behind an outpouring of offense, Texas claimed a 10-8 victory over Cleveland to extend its winning streak to six games.
The Indians saw their season-high winning streak snapped at six.
Carlos Santana and Roberto Perez each homered to help power the Indians’ offense, which chased Texas starter Phil Klein from the contest after only two-plus innings. For the Rangers, Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre connected for consecutive home runs in the first inning to help send Tribe righty Shaun Marcum to the showers after only 2 2/3 innings.
“There were balls that caught too much of the plate that were up,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of Marcum’s outing. “The guys that he left balls up to, Beltre and Fielder, are very good offspeed hitters. Those are guys that if you make a mistake, that’s what they can do to it.”
Both Klein (seven runs, six earned) and Marcum (seven runs on four hits) walked away with no-decisions in the back-and-forth battle. Michael Brantley gave the Indians an 8-7 lead with an RBI double in the seventh, but the Tribe bullpen made two errors that led to two runs in the seventh.
Outfielder Josh Hamilton, who was activated from the disabled list prior to Monday’s game, went 0-for-3 with one walk and one run scored in his return to the Rangers. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus contributed a two-run double in the third and later added a leadoff homer in the eighth to extend Texas’ lead.
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