That one was ugly: Indians blasted by Bosox

Photo by: Mark Duncan

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo

Cleveland Indians' Shelley Duncan bats against the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game Wednesday, May 25, 2011, in Cleveland.

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

The Indians knew it was coming.

They were due, perhaps overdue, to play a miserable game. At some point, their impressive, unexpected start figured to slow down.

On Wednesday, it came to a grinding halt.

Mitch Talbot came off the disabled list and Boston put a hurting on him, scoring seven runs in the first inning as the Red Sox rocked the Indians 14-2, handing Cleveland its largest loss this year and winning two of the last three games in the series.

“Every team is going to have a game like this,” shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera said. “We have to forget about today.”

Boston starter Jon Lester shut out Cleveland on three hits over six innings and the Red Sox racked up a season-high 20 hits.

This was lopsided, and then some.

“It was an uphill battle from the get-go,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “It’s not a very good feeling before you get to the plate and you’re trailing 7-0 against Jon Lester. I don’t think even the ’27 Yankees would have a good feeling trailing 7-0 against this guy.”

Talbot, activated before the game, was tagged with eight runs and 12 hits in three innings — the worst outing of his career. Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run homer to start Boston’s first-inning onslaught, when all the Red Sox hits were rockets.

“Rough day for Mitch,” Acta said. “It’s easy to describe. The average lineup at the major-league level does a lot of damage when the pitcher is behind in the count and that’s not an average lineup over there. If it wasn’t for a couple of diving catches, his outing would have been even shorter.”

Talbot chalked it up as “just kind of one of those days.”

Lester (7-1) allowed three hits in six shutout innings and won his seventh straight decision. It was a very different start than his previous one in Cleveland on April 7, when he pitched seven shutout innings and got a no-decision in Boston’s 1-0 loss.

“It’s tough sometimes to pitch with those leads, but you just have to focus on taking it one inning, one pitch at a time,” Lester said.