Astros Overwhelm Clevinger and the Indians 8-2; Three Takeaways From the Loss

CLEVELAND - The Tribe looked in good shape Thursday night at Progressive Field against the defending World Series Champion Houston Astros, but hanging on to a 2-0 lead in the 5th, all it took was one pitch to change the game.

That pitch was a 77 mile per hour breaking ball by Indians starter Mike Clevinger that Astros third basemen Alex Bregman slammed into the seats in left for a three-run homer that put Houston up for good 3-2.

It was all downhill after that for the Tribe, who then watched their bullpen again implode, allowing Houston to put up five runs in the 6th to put the game away with an 8-2 win.

The loss puts the Indians at 24-24 on the season, dropping Clevinger to 3-2. Here's three takeaways from the loss as the Indians look to rebound on Friday with Corey Kluber going for the Indians at 7:10pm.

1. Magical Morton

As pointed out in the preview for this game, Houston starter Charlie Morton really has come out of nowhere to become one of the better pitchers in the American League, and he was at it again on Thursday, moving to 7-0 with the win.

The Indians got to him for a pair of runs in the 3rd, but were held in check after that as they couldn't produce much against Morton and two other Houston bullpen arms.

Morton on the night went six innings, allowing two runs on five hits with three walks and five K's, and his ERA is now just slightly above two at 2.04.

His curveball was very good again as it was last time out against the Tribe, and his fastball has just enough to stop hitters in their tracks.

2. The Pen of Pain

We hear it night after night from Indians manager Terry Francona when it comes to the bullpen - stating that the team is doing whatever it can to get guys in position to be successful.

The issue might not be the situations, but the fact that a lot of these guys the team is running out are simply not all that good.

It happened again on Thursday, as down 3-2 in the 6th, Tyler Olson and Neil Ramirez combined to allow three runs on four hits in 18 pitches, taking a 3-2 game and wiping it out and allowing the Astros go up 8-2.

It's like a bad broken record that just plays over and over and over. The pen is a complete disaster, and it feels like at this rate the Tribe is going to set a record for the amount of arms they march out to try and simply get some guys out.

Thursday it was back to being utterly frustrating watching Olson and Ramirez blow up what could have been a fun game in the final few innings.

1. Back to Even

For the now 11th time in 2018, the Cleveland Indians sit at .500 at 24-24 after the setback to the Astros.

We all know that unless there's a collapse of epic proportions that the Indians are going to win the AL Central, but watching them try and match up with the likes of Houston and say the New York Yankees is truly ugly.

The Indians are now 1-5 against Houston and New York combined, and have yet to see the other AL powerhouse so far in 2018, the Boston Red Sox.

It was nice to see this team get on track a little the last two nights in Chicago with solid wins over the Cubs, but the formula for losing (an awful bullpen and a bad night at the plate) reared its ugly head again on Thursday.

This team really could use a streak like it had back in the early portion of the season when they won 10 of 14 from April 6th to April 23rd.

They say winning cures everything, but right now this team simply can't get on a solid roll.