Reds take game one in Battle of Ohio with 7-5 win over Indians; three takeaways

CLEVELAND-- The Indians are in serious need of a bounce-back series following a 5-4 road trip and dropping two out of three games to the Oakland A's over the weekend.

They still are looking to get back to winning ways after a 7-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in the first game of the Battle for Ohio on Monday night. Cleveland was down 7-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but then mounted a mini four-run comeback in the final frame that ultimately, proved to not be enough.

Mike Clevinger (7-4, 3.34) picked up his fourth loss of the year, while Anthony DeSclafani (4-1, 4.43) picked up his fourth win as the Reds improve to 9-2 in interleague play this season.

The Indians fall to 7-5 vs. the National League this season. Here are three takeaways from the loss.

1. Clev's odd outing

There was good and bad in Mike Clevinger's start on Monday night. So let's start with the good.

He tied a career-high striking out 11 batters and put together his 12th quality start of the season, topping his career-high of 11 quality starts from 2017.

But onto the bad-- Clevinger gave up five earned runs, and the Reds were 7-of-13 in all at-bats that didn't end with a strikeout. All balls that the Reds put in play against Clevinger, save for Jesse Winker's RBI double in the fourth inning, came right into the heart of the zone in what was, all things considered, a pretty odd start.

The right-hander is still looking for the first interleague win of his career (0-3 through five starts).

2. Cincinnati's offensive X-factors

So far this season, Joey Votto and Scooter Gennett have been the two players to watch at the plate. And while Votto had a solo homer in the fifth inning, his only hit of the game, Gennett didn't get a hit and drew just one walk in a 0-for-4 night.

That left the rest of the order to make some offensive plays.

Right fielder Scott Schebler had the biggest night for the Reds, finishing 4-for-5 from the plate and driving in the final three runs of the game for Cincinnati with an RBI single in the seventh and a two-run homer off of Josh Tomlin in the ninth.

Cincinnati catcher Tucker Barnhart also found his groove at the plate early going up against Clevinger. He recorded an RBI double in the top of the second inning to put Cincinnati up 1-0, and followed that up in his next at-bat in the fourth inning with an RBI single to put the Reds up 3-0. He ended the evening going 2-for-4.

3. Too little, twoo late.

Prior to the ninth inning, Cleveland's only run of the game came in the fourth inning on a solo homer from Yonder Alonso.

They would find no offensive groove until the bottom of the ninth inning. After Alonso drew a lead off walk, Jason Kipnis sent a two-run shot to right field. Yan Gomes followed up in the next at-bat with a double, and was joined on-base by Greg Allen who recorded a single two batters later.

Gomes was plated the following at-bat by a Francisco Lindor sacrifice fly, and a Michael Brantley double would drive in Allen for the Tribe's fifth and final run.

What made this loss particularly upsetting was the fact that Cleveland was down 5-1 heading into the top of the ninth before Tomlin gave up that homer to Schebler.

But other than the ninth, the Tribe struggled for most of the game to string hits together. They were just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, and were unable to get more than one hit in any inning before the ninth.