Tribe enters break near top

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

The Cleveland Indians head into the All-Star break in a spot not many outside of the locker room would have predicted.

They are only a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central after falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1 on Sunday. Cleveland has led the division for most of the first half of the season.

“I don’t look at it as a momentum shift,” Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore said. “We were in two of the losses, won the first game dramatically and before that played very well [going 2-1] from a very good Yankees team.”

Designated hitter Travis Hafner, whose walkoff grand slam beat the Blue Jays 5-4 Thursday night, said the Indians are not about to go away.

“Not many outside this clubhouse expected much,” Hafner said. “We’ve done a great job, especially with so many hitters [Hafner, Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo among them] going on the disabled list. Hopefully this break will help, we’ll get to full strength and play even better.”

Toronto’s Brett Cecil (2-4) gave up one unearned run over six innings for his first win in three starts since being recalled from the minors June 30. The left-hander allowed six hits and walked three. He struck out six, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and stranded nine runners overall.

Eric Thames’ two-run homer in a five-run third off Carlos Carrasco (8-6) put the Blue Jays ahead.

Jose Bautista’s two-run double off Rafael Perez made it 7-0 in the sixth.

“I thought we played very well this series,” Toronto manager John Farrell said. “With the exception, obviously of game one and what took place late.”

Toronto moved within two games of .500 and have Bautista going to the All-Star Game as baseball’s home run leader with 31 — along with 65 RBIs and a .334 average.

The Indians have lost four of six, failing to build on Hafner’s big hit and be in first place at the break for the first time since 1999, when they went on to win their fifth straight division title.

Carrasco’s second consecutive poor outing didn’t help.

“I don’t know what happened,” Carrasco said before offering a reason may have been getting a couple of strikeout early with a good slider and failing to be aggressive enough with his fastball.

Thames followed a single by Yunel Escobar with his fourth homer for a 2-0 lead. Carrasco held Bautista — who had three homers in his previous two games — to a rare opposite-field single hit where the second baseman normally would have been stationed if not in a shift against the pull-hitting slugger. Bautista got to third on a pair of groundouts before Carrasco walked Travis Snider and gave up an RBI single on the first pitch to J.P. Arencibia that made it 3-0.

After pitching coach Tim Belcher went to the mound to try and settle Carrasco, the right-hander wild pitched the runners to second and third, and Corey Patterson hit a ground-rule double into the seats in right-center for a 5-0 lead.

Carrasco released some frustration when he got Rajai Davis to bounce back to him to end the inning.