The Indians will score again this season. That is about as sure as it can get in terms of predictions. For one more night, though, Cleveland’s bats went quiet and the ballclub added another loss to an August to forget.
Tuesday’s was a 7-0 defeat to the A’s that marked the third loss in a row and the 12th in the past 13 games for the reeling Indians. Oakland lefty Tommy Milone shut Cleveland’s lineup down and the A’s did enough at the plate to trip up the Tribe.
The Indians have gone season-high 22 innings without a run scored.
“We’re playing embarrassing baseball,” Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “It’s just bad. Offense, defense, pitching, everything. It’s just not the way we’re used to doing it.”
The fall began with The Streak, an 11-game losing streak that ran from July 27-Aug. 7 and dropped Cleveland from 3 1/2 to 10 1/2 games back of first place in the American League Central. Then there was The Streak II, a nine-game skid that started on Aug. 14 and finally came to an end on Friday.
This stretch of baseball might now be remembered around Cleveland as The Collapse.
Thirty games. Twenty-five losses.
One crushed fan base.
“We’ve just got to play with a little bit more urgency than we are,” Kipnis said. “We should be able to play spoiler right now and have some fun and be a little bit more relaxed. I don’t know what’s holding the guys back. We should be playing with a little bit more pep in our step, because we’ve got nothing to lose right now.
“We might as well go out there and have fun. If we’re already going to lose every game, we might as well have a good attitude.”
After dropping the second game in a row to the A’s, marking the ninth consecutive lost or split series for the Tribe, the Indians sit 16 1/2 back of the AL Central-leading White Sox. The standings seem irrelevant at this point, except to show how far this Indians team has fallen below its expectations of contending.
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