CLEVELAND: The start of 2016 was more of the same from 2015.
The Indians couldn’t give ace Corey Kluber much run support. The offense showed a bit of promise but ultimately stalled.
In the coldest season-opening game in franchise history, the Indians and Kluber fell to the Boston Red Sox 6-2 on Tuesday.
The game originally was scheduled for Monday, but low temperatures and icy conditions forced a postponement. Tuesday’s weather was dry but not much warmer — the 34-degree weather at first pitch iced out 1907’s 36-degree first-pitch temperature.
“I don’t think the conditions are an excuse,” Kluber said. “Yeah, it was cold out there, but both teams dealt with it. You have to find a way to get it done. I don’t think that’s something I’m looking to use as an excuse.”
The Red Sox (1-0) struck first. In the top of the third and with a runner on first, Mookie Betts drove a Kluber pitch into the bleacher seats in left field for a two-run homer.
“I was trying to go down and away with a fastball and I just got on the side of it and it came right back to the middle,” Kluber said. “He did what he was supposed to do with it. I was trying to go down and away and see if we could get a ground ball and turn two.”
The Indians (0-1) responded in the bottom of the fourth against Red Sox ace David Price. Singles by Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana set up Yan Gomes, who got a ground ball through the infield for an RBI single. With Santana advancing to third on Gomes’ single, Marlon Byrd tied the score 2-2 with a sacrifice fly to left field.
The Red Sox knocked Kluber (5⅓ innings, nine hits, four runs, five strikeouts) around in the sixth with three straight singles to open the inning. The last, by Brock Holt, gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead. A wild pitch then allowed an insurance run to score.
In the ninth, Trevor Bauer entered the game out of the bullpen and struggled. Bauer walked the first batter he faced and then allowed a two-run homer to David Ortiz, making it 6-2. Hanley Ramirez nearly went back-to-back with Ortiz but missed a home run by a few feet.
Bauer eventually got out of the inning with no further damage.
After the two-run fourth inning, Tribe batters struggled to give Kluber much support, harkening back to a recurring problem in 2015. In all, Red Sox pitchers recorded 15 strikeouts, 10 of them by Price.
It was an especially rough day for the five new veterans in the lineup — Rajai Davis, Byrd, Collin Cowgill, Juan Uribe and Mike Napoli went 1-for-15 with 12 strikeouts, two walks and an RBI.
Francisco Lindor went 2-for-4, the lone Indians hitter to have a multi-hit day. Tuesday’s result wasn’t what the Indians wanted, especially playing in the frigid conditions, but Lindor stressed it was just the first game of 162.
“To be honest, the only time I felt it was when I rolled over my first at-bat,” Lindor said of the cold weather. “I couldn’t feel my fingers. After that, I was fine. They were cold as well, so it’s not an excuse. We played hard and we did our best. We didn’t come out with a win today, but that’s OK — we’ve got 161 games to go.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ.