Indians Fireworks Fall Flat, Lose at Home to Padres 1-0

CLEVELAND - Ugh.

On a night when the fireworks were great, the crowd was into it, and Francisco Lindor had his bobblehead passed out in mass, the Indians again were a letdown, losing the lowly San Diego Padres 1-0 at Progressive Field.

Corey Kluber did his part on the night, striking out 10 in eight innings, but a base running mistake by Jose Ramirez, a defensive letdown in the fifth, and an awful night at the plate overall all equaled another tough to swallow night for the Tribe.

The team is now just 18-22 at home, and while they will come back Wednesday still in first place, this was another shot to go up against a team that is going nowhere to create some distance in the division, and they failed to do it.

Here's three takeaways from Tuesday's shutout loss.

By Mike Coutee

3. Kluber Does His Part

All-Star Corey Kluber took the mound for the Tribe where he pitched a great game but what was bad about it was he took the loss, thanks to no run support from his offense.

After Tuesday's start, his record dropped to 7-3 of the season.

Kluber final line was pitching eight strong innings, giving up five hits and striking out 10. Coming off the disabled list on June 1st, Kluber is now 4-1 with a 1.24 ERA in 51 innings pitched.

With his start, this marks the fifth straight games he struck out 10 or more batters which set a new club record passing Bob Feller.

Also, Kluber is set to pitch again this Sunday night against the Detroit Tigers which will air on ESPN.

2. Ugly Night at the Plate

The Indians offense against the Padres pitching staff should have been a mismatch, and it was.

In favor of the Padres that it.

The top four in the Tribe lineup went an ugly 0-for-14 with two walks and six strikeouts, and two of them (Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley) are two of the five Indians All-Stars.

The Tribe left seven men on base total, and left a runner on third base in four straight innings. They couldn't muster a run against Padres starter Trevor Cahill and a bunch of San Diego relief pitchers, and because of it Corey Kluber lost in a game he really should have won.

The teams' hits with runners in scoring

hird base in each of the last four innings. They have scored zero runs. I believe that is not ideal.

Indians now hitless in 10 at-bats with RISP tonight.

1. More Unfocused Play at Home

The Indians are now just 5-9 in series openers at Progressive Field, and after having a day off on Monday there's no excuse for this team to come out against a 34-48 Padres team and not put up a single run.

The team has been bad for the most part all year at home, and fall to 18-22 at Progressive Field, and worst of all it came on a night when there wasn't a seat to be had, as it was the second sellout in 2017.

With so much excitement in the park, and with their ace on the mound, once again the teams' night at the plate can be defined by one word - undisciplined.

As for the defense, their lack of focus on that side led to the Padres only run on back-to-back screw ups in the field between Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor, and it cost them in the 5th.

This might have been one of, if not thee most frustrating loss of the year based on the fact that Kluber was dominant, the crowd was into it, and the team was coming off winning two of three in Detroit.