Indians still not hitting

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

The Indians aren’t panicking about their lack of offense.

Unless they start hitting, they’ll have no other choice.

On Monday night, Cleveland was dominated by Chris Sale making his first career start for 62/3 innings and the Indians managed just five hits in a 4-2 loss to the White Sox.

Through four games, the Indians are batting just .153 and have scored 14 runs — an average of 2.7 per nine innings.

“We’ve just got to stay positive,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “Four games does not define the offense of a ball club. We’ve been pitching good, which gives the offense time to get going. But it is tough when you are not generating any offense as we are right now.”

Sale pitched out of Chicago’s bullpen the past two seasons but was moved into the rotation after ace Mark Buehrle left as a free agent this winter. The left-hander, who had made 79 relief appearances, took a one-hit shutout into the sixth. In his longest outing, Sale allowed three hits and struck out five.

“First one,” he said. “So far, so good.”

The 23-year-old had little trouble with a Cleveland team that is just 23 for 150 and have scored 10 of their 14 runs on homers.

“It’s not really a big concern because we’re only four games into the season,” third baseman Jason Donald said. “Once just a few guys get it going, the others will feed off that. It should come around.”

A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-run homer in the first, four batters after Alejandro De Aza homered leading off against Josh Tomlin (0-1) to stake Sale to a 3-0 lead. The lanky 6-foot-6 Sale took it from there, handling the Indians with ease and making Chicago’s decision to convert him from reliever to starter look good after one game.

“He threw great,” said first-year manager Robin Ventura. “We probably could have left him in there.”