Indians’ Ubaldo Jimenez falters again with lead

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Ubaldo Jimenez went to the mound with the lead in the seventh inning.

By the time he went back to the dugout the lead was gone and so were the Indians’ chances of winning.

Jimenez (4-3) allowed three runs in the seventh before the Chicago White Sox blew the game open with three home runs in the eighth off Chad Durbin, sending Cleveland to an 8-4 loss Wednesday night.

Travis Hafner’s two-run homer off Mark Buehrle gave Cleveland a 2-1 lead in the sixth, but Brent Morel’s double tied the game and Alejandro De Aza hit a tiebreaking, two-run single.

The Indians hoped they were getting a No. 1 starter when they acquired Jimenez from Colorado before the July 31 trade deadline. He was 3-1 in his last five starts going into the game and held the White Sox to one run and four hits through six innings.

“He was cruising until the seventh,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “I tried to stretch him a little bit like a top of the rotation guy and it backfired on us.”

A one-out walk to Dayan Viciedo started Jimenez’s trouble. After Morel’s double to left-center made it 2-2, Jimenez walked Gordon Beckham with two outs. Following a wild pitch, De Aza dropped a single into center field.

“I lost my control,” Jimenez said. “If I didn’t walk those guys, I wouldn’t have had to face De Aza.”

“Walks are a jinx,” Acta said. “He missed his location a couple of times in that inning and it hurt him.”

Jimenez wasn’t pleased with the pitch to De Aza.

“I was trying to go up and in, but I left it in the middle of the plate,” Jimenez said. “It was a mistake.”

Acta chose not to go to his overworked bullpen in the seventh in the hopes his ace could get the game to the eighth.

“You want to give him the opportunity to win the ballgame and finish that inning,” Acta said. “He couldn’t do it.”