Indians lose sixth series in row

Cleveland lost to the Twins on Justin Morneau’s 10th-inning RBI single, 2-1.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Well, it was a great four days.

The time span referred to here was the first series of the regular season, when the Indians took 2 of 3 games from Chicago and looked like defending division champions tend to look.

Major League Baseball, however, required the Indians to play the other 159 games anyway.

The rest of the season has not gone well. The most recent kick to the stomach came Sunday, when Justin Morneau’s 10th-inning RBI single gave Minnesota a 2-1 victory at the Metrodome.

The Indians have played six series since the White Sox left town April 3. They have won exactly none of them.

“We need something to get us over that hump,” third baseman Casey Blake said. “It’s just hard to come by right now.”

That “something” might best be defined as “hits.” Cleveland’s pitching seems to have righted itself after a sputtering start, but most of the hitters seem to be playing in a fog. The Indians’ .236 batting average is worst in the American League. The .360 slugging percentage was also worst in the league through Saturday.

Manager Eric Wedge has finally grown weary of waiting for his hitters to begin shouldering their share of the workload while his team has gone 3-8 in its last 11 games.

Wedge is generally careful to draw a distinction between poor results and a poor approach to hitting by his players.

“We had a much better approach yesterday than today,” Wedge said. “I wasn’t particularly pleased with what I saw today. We had some quick at-bats.”

Twins right-hander Scott Baker made quick work of the Indians through seven innings, allowing only a Franklin Gutierrez RBI single in the second. He was matched by veteran Indians right-hander Paul Byrd, who also allowed one run over seven innings.

Minnesota finally broke through against Rafael Perez (0-1) in the bottom of the 10th.

Brendan Harris sent a two-out single into center field. Jason Kubel’s line-drive then ricocheted off Perez’s outstretched glove and into center field as Harris scampered to third.

Morneau fell behind 1-2 in the count, then poked a hard grounder through the right side. First baseman Ryan Garko’s dive to his right came up just short and the ball rolled into right field as Harris scored the winning run.