The Mariners quickly jumped on Corey Kluber, who didn’t have his typical command, putting up two runs in the first two innings en route to a 3-2 victory over the Indians at Progressive Field on Tuesday night.
Roenis Elias held the Indians to just one earned run over six innings of work, striking out three and walking two while allowing five hits. He retired eight of the last nine batters he faced, and has now worked into the sixth inning in all nine starts this season.
The Mariners though got a tough break when they would lose slugger Nelson Cruz to back spasms in the fifth inning.
Yan Gomes was the hitting star on the night for the Indians as he would hit his first two homers of the season to account for the only runs scored for Cleveland.
Kluber issued three walks for the first time since Aug. 21 of last season, after walking just three batters combined in his previous five starts. He allowed just two earned runs on seven hits over seven innings of work, striking out four, but the Indians continued a season-long trend of giving Kluber little-to-no run support. Kluber entered the game averaging just 2.3 runs of support per game, the third-lowest figure in the Majors.
“I don’t think you can let it get frustrating,” Kluber said. “If you start feeling sorry for yourself or something like that, then that takes your focus away from what it needs to be on, and that’s trying to get guys out. I think everybody is going to go through times when they don’t get run support. I think if you start to worry about that, that probably gets in the way of pitching and makes pitching harder.”
The win marked the first time the Mariners won a series opener since a May 25 victory against Tampa Bay. The loss marked the fourth time in the last week that the Indians were one game away from reaching .500 for the first time since April 10, only to lose and drop back to two games under.
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