Indians Beat Up in Boston 6-2 by the Red Sox; Three Takeaways From the Setback

On a day when the Indians were able to bring back relief pitcher Joe Smith, the outcome of their outing in Beantown against the Red Sox didn't go very well.

The result was the teams' second straight loss, as they fell to the Red Sox 6-2 in a game that was defined by a bad outing by starter Mike Clevinger, and a fielding mistake by Jose Ramirez that opened the door to some early Sox runs that would be all they would need.

Boston pitcher Doug Fister, who like Sunday's White Sox starter Carlos Rondon entered the game struggling, pitched well for the Red Sox, despite entering the game 0-5 with a 7.46 ERA.

Here's a couple takeaways from a busy day and bad night for the Tribe, as they fall to 57-47 on the season.

3. Jose's Mistake a Back Breaker

While it not ruled an error, it should have been, as Jose Ramirez missed on a ball in the second inning that he clearly should have had, opening the door for the Sox to take a lead they would never lose.

The miscue came with two outs, which made it worse, and it went as a double for Red Sox Christian Vazquez, and then the inning continued as leadoff hitter Mookie Betts singled in two runs to give the Sox a 2-0 lead.

Not getting that third out seemed to take the wind out of the Indians sails, and they never recovered as they eventually found themselves in a 6-0 hole before Bradley Zimmer homered to make it a 6-2 game in the 8th, but by then it was too little, too late.

Overall the team played what could be considered a flat effort in the first of the three games against the Sox, but the good news is they have two more games and still have a shot to win the series even after this lackluster outing.

2. Clevinger's Second Straight Poor Outing

The Indians gave starter Mike Clevinger a 7-0 lead last week at home against the Angels, and he gave it just about all back before exiting the game in an eventual 11-7 Indians win.

Monday he didn't get the run support, but it didn't matter, as he again pitched poorly in taking the loss to drop to 5-4 on the season.

He walked too many batters (four), and lasted just three plus innings before getting pulled for Zach McAllister, again putting the pen in a tough spot.

Clevinger gave up way too much traffic, and was charged with five runs on seven hits in his latest outing. In his last two outings he's gone 7.1 innings, allowing 10 ER on 16 hits with 6 walks and seven K's.

The team placed Josh Tomlin on the 10-day DL with his hammy injury suffered Sunday, meaning that Clevinger is being counted on still to be a big part of this rotation as it stands.

His outing Monday hopefully was rock bottom, as he is set to take the rubber again on Saturday at home against the Yankees.

1. The Lead Remains the Same

The Royals 2-1 loss to the Orioles means that the Tribe despite their own loss to the Red Sox keeps them at two games up in the AL Central.

It was a long and stressful day with rumors all over the place about the team looking at players like Yu Darvish, Addison Reed and Zach Britton, but in the end they came away with old pal Joe Smith, in a deal considered minor based on what they gave up in return.

The game in Boston was a letdown, their second straight loss after a nine-game win streak, but before people start to assume they are going to go back into their season long stretch of being inconsistent, remember how it went after their long win streak last season.

Following their July 1st win in Toronto, they lost six of their last nine, including a 17-1 loss to the Jays, and then a few days later a 12-2 loss to the Tigers.

It's baseball, and it's hard to stay good for a very extended amount of time. This team is still built to win this season, and now over the next two months they have a shot to improve their standing for a hopeful run in the playoffs, and put the Royals to bed with 10 games remaining between the two teams.

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