Scott Kazmir spent the first two months of this season finding his way on the mound. Over his last two outings, the Indians left-hander has seemingly lost what he had found.
On Sunday, Kazmir struggled through five innings against the A’s and allowed a pair of home runs that sent the Tribe on its way to a 7-3 loss at the Coliseum. The lefty denied that he was still dealing with the self-described “dead arm” that plagued him in his previous performance.
This time, Kazmir simply cited a lack of execution.
“My arm felt fine,” Kazmir said. “I felt like I prepared myself to get ready for this start. There’s no excuses. I felt like it just wasn’t my day.”
With the win, Oakland took two of the three games to claim the series and knocked Cleveland’s record to 3-3 with three games left on this three-city road trip. The A’s, who currently lead the pack for the second Wild Card spot in the American League, also dropped the Indians to 4 1/2 games back in that postseason race.
The Indians now head to Anaheim for a three-game set with the Angels.
Inside a quiet visitors’ clubhouse, Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said the time has come for Cleveland to push down on the accelerator.
“You don’t have time to be deflated by any of these games any more,” Kipnis said. “It’s go time. We need to win. There’s no time to sit around and feel sorry about losing two of three. We’ve got three against the Angels that are going to be big games.”
It was against Los Angeles on Aug. 9 when Kazmir’s career renaissance with the Indians hit a wall. The Angels tagged the lefty for five runs and chased him after just three innings in a forgettable start, following which Kazmir complained of arm fatigue. Given Kazmir’s incredible comeback, Cleveland allowed him to rest for eight days leading up to this outing in the East Bay.
Kazmir’s arm felt better — his velocity readings supported that claim — but the southpaw labored out of the gate in Oakland. Jed Lowrie and Derek Norris opened the first inning with a single and double, respectively, and both eventually came around to score. In the second inning, Josh Donaldson delivered an RBI single to put the A’s ahead, 3-1.
“He’s fine. He just didn’t command real well today,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “I think the layoff was good for his arm strength, but it looked like he didn’t have his best changeup and he didn’t command his fastball. He had a lot of deep counts, especially early in the game.”
The Indians did what they could to counter Oakland’s attack, scoring three runs off lefty Tommy Milone in his 4 2/3 innings on the mound.
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