Cleveland: Corey Kluber struggled with the New York Mets’ bats and Rajai Davis struggled with a giant fireball in the sky, and the Indians fell 6-0 on Sunday afternoon.
Kluber dropped to 0-3 this season and was knocked around right from the start. After a walk and a single to start the first inning, outfielder Michael Conforto doubled home a run and first baseman Lucas Duda later added a two-run single to right field to give the Mets (5-6) a 3-0 lead.
“Walking the leadoff guy is never good to start a game, but we got a rollover ground ball from [Asdrubal] Cabrera that just found a hole,” Kluber said. “I just didn’t make a good pitch to Conforto or Duda. They both drove in runs with them.”
In the second inning, the sun did the damage to the Indians (5-5) on a rare cloudless day in Cleveland. Kluber quickly recorded two outs before outfielder Curtis Granderson sent a high fly ball to deep center field. Davis, trying to shield the sun with whatever he could, was unable to locate it in time, giving Granderson a triple instead of ending the inning.
“Those are the ones you just have to play out of position to catch those balls,” Davis said. “They’re not going to be easy balls to catch, especially with the sun out like that as high as it is, but you just have to make the adjustment, especially at this level.”
A few pitches later, Cabrera made it costly with a bunt single that was compounded by a throwing error by Kluber.
Conforto followed with another RBI-double on a hard-hit ground ball that got under the glove of Indians first basemen Mike Napoli.
Mets designated hitter Yoenis Cespedes then sent another high fly ball to center field. Once again, Davis fought the sun and couldn’t find the ball in time, as it dropped for a double and put the Mets up 6-0 in the second inning.
“In the second inning, [Kluber has] a chance for an easy inning, two outs, gets the fly ball and [they] turn it into three more,” manager Terry Francona said. “That hurt a lot.”
Kluber was strong from that point, finishing with six earned runs on nine hits and a walk to go with eight strikeouts in six innings pitched. But the Mets’ bats and the Indians’ issues with the sun were enough to carry Mets starter Steven Matz (1-1), who threw seven scoreless innings, allowed just three hits and two walks and struck out nine.
The Indians mustered only three hits and struck out 15 times as a team on Sunday, never putting together a rally to challenge the Mets’ six-run lead.
“I guess it was partly because they got off to a hot start,” Davis said. “That allowed [Matz] to settle in. Then they got more runs in the second. That’s an uphill battle right there. He was able to settle in and we’re on defense a lot more than we’re on offense. It’s tougher as hitters to compete, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
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 and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ