Indians Series Summary No. 3: Hooray, they beat a lefty

In the brief two-game series against the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians lost their fifth game of the season by a score of 4-1, then won their third, 4-2. The win was their first home victory after starting 0-4 at Progressive Field.

What lousy timing for the Indians so far in this young season. After opening the 2015 campaign by taking two out of three in Houston, the Tribe came home to face Detroit, only to find that the Tigers were peaking at the very start of the series. Imagine that, an offense that reaches its peak on April 10th. (Wait, someone here is saying the Tigers are scheduled to peak again on April 24 … now how would they know that?) Anyway, the Indians get swept by Detroit and then the White Sox come into town and, wouldn’t you know it, left-handed pitcher, José Quintana pitches like a Cy Young contender. What rotten luck!

Rotten luck? No, you can be sure Terry Francona will not allow his team to fall for that one. Neither Michael Brantley’s absence for six of the first eight games, nor the loss of Yan Gomes for several weeks, nor Carlos Carrasco going down for the count on Tuesday night will keep this manager from insisting on what he’s been saying since coming to Cleveland. He’ll have them focusing on the task at hand, one game at a time. He will explain, as he has countless times, that this early in the season, everything is exaggerated, magnified, and distorted. Good idea.

Oh, was he talking about reporters and writers?

On Tuesday night, Quintana didn’t seem to have his best stuff, but he didn’t seem to need it. The Indians managed only three hits and one run off him in six innings. Not only did Quintana look like Warren Spahn against the Indians, so did the two lefty relief pitchers who followed him in the seventh and eighth innings. Then their closer, David Robertson, not even bothering to pitch from the left side, struck out the side in the ninth on 12 pitches. (So far, that looks like a pretty good free agent signing by the White Sox last off season.) The Indians struck out 14 times Tuesday night. Carlos Carrasco took the painful loss by giving up two runs on just eight pitches to the only two batters he faced.

The good news about Carrasco, however, is that he’s actually scheduled to start next on Monday against the White Sox in Chicago. “OK, let’s try this again,” he’ll say as he climbs the mound. Good news, indeed. It was great to see Carlos in the dugout the day after, jokingly waving off his teammates with one hand while cradling his jaw with the other. “It hurts to laugh,” he seemed to be pleading.

In game two of the series, righty Trevor Bauer took charge. After pitching six no-hit innings against the Astros on April 9, he pitched three more hitless innings against the White Sox on Wednesday and went on to register six innings of work, giving up two runs, four hits and four walks. His record is now 2-0.

Indians hitters didn’t look like Tigers but they scored four while their pitchers held their opponents to two. Scores of 3-2, 4-2, 5-3 will start to look familiar as the 2015 season moves along.

With a Bauer vs. Danks matchup, this was a game Cleveland really should have won, and they did. But because Danks is a lefty, the victory may have been just a little more encouraging for the Indians. It’s one thing to lose to Warren Spahn or Sandy Koufax or Clayton Kershaw. It’s another matter altogether to look helpless against just about any average southpaw.

Pleasant surprises? After this series, Jerry Sands is still looking comfortable at the plate, getting his bat on the ball, making things happen. Not so pleasant? Cody Allen. It seems he exchanged imperturbable for perturbable during his flight from Houston back to Cleveland. Enter Yogi Berra with his observation of how important that mysterious mental realm of the game of baseball is.

Next up: A nine-game road trip to Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit. So far, two errors, no rainouts, and a record of 3-5.