Kluber Knocked Out Early in Shortest Career Outing as Cardinals Pound

Five days ago Indians fans were put to ease by the outing Corey Kluber had against the White Sox at home, as he and the team blasted Chicago 12-0 at Progressive

Five days ago Indians fans were put to ease by the outing Corey Kluber had against the White Sox at home, as he and the team blasted Chicago 12-0 at Progressive Field, rebounding from Kluber's previous start in which he went five innings against the Twins in bad home loss.

In his final start of the month on Tuesday night in St.Louis, the Cardinals didn't play along with the script that the Indians were hoping for their two-time Cy Young award winner, as they slammed Kluber in his worst and shortest outing of his career in a Cardinals 11-2 win.

It was so bad for the Indians ace that manager Terry Francona pulled Kluber after 1.2 innings after Jose Martinez conceded a three-run homer, giving St.Louis a 6-2 lead.

It was a nightmare night for the second straight night in St.Louis, here's three takeaways from the bad Tribe setback.

1. Kluber Clobbered in Shortest Outing in Career

1.2 innings, an outing that will go down as the shortest of the career of two-time Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber in the Tribe's 10-2 loss.

The offense actually staked Kluber to a 2-0 edge against Carlos Martinez, but it was nowhere near enough for Kluber, who in those 1.2 innings of work allowed six runs on six hits with a walk, two K's and two homers.

The first homer to Matt Carpenter in the 1st got St.Louis on the board to make it a 2-1 game, and the ace was pulled after the second homer, a three-run blast by Jose Martinez to left that scored Kolton Wong and Carpenter to make it a 6-2 affair.

Fans are going to speculate again that something is wrong with Kluber, as it's his 2nd subpar outing in the last three - the other poor outing a five inning effort against the Twins on June 15th.

Let's not panic about Kluber just yet, but yes two poor starts out of three is very much out of the ordinary for the Indians ace.

"Martínez. 3-run 💣 off of Kluber!" - @DannyMacTV #VoteCafeJr #VoteCafeJr #VoteCafeJr #VoteCafeJr https://t.co/icO8vQU8SY

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 27, 2018

2. Fast Start Fizzles

Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez had not had a start in June in which he had thrown over five innings, but against the Indians that all ended, as he went six innings holding the Tribe to two runs.

The line on Martinez was one that was more than good enough on a night in which Corey Kluber allowed six runs in less than two innings.

Overall he went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.

The win puts Martinez at 4-4 on the season with a 3.22 ERA. He came out an outing against the Brewers in which he allowed five runs on eight hits in four outings against Milwaukee.

In two games in this trip, the Cards have outscored the Tribe 15-2 - ouch.

3. Equally as Bad Night for the Pen

The Indians pen didn't exactly do any favor to Corey Kluber or the Indians offense to give them a chance after Kluber allowed six runs in 1.2 innings.

Manager Terry Francona marched out four relief pitchers, and all of them minus one inning from Oliver Perez allowed at least one run.

It started with Dan Otero who gave up two runs in 1.1 innings, allowing a homer in his time to give St.Louis an 8-2 lead.

Josh Tomlin threw three innings to bridge the gap, allowing two runs on four hits as the Cardinals pushed the lead out to 10-2.

Tomlin's ERA sits at 6.04 on the season.

After a successful one inning for Perez in which he didn't allow a run with a walk and two K's, it was George Kontos who came in and in garbage time gave up a homer to Matt Carpenter, who hit two blasts on the night.

Five runs in 6.1 innings overall for the pen, and while the offense wasn't going to get it done, the effort from this unit was more like it was earlier in the season when they couldn't seem to get anyone out.