Acta unhappy after Indians bumble, stumble vs. Royals

By Paul Hoynes

Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

The Royals ended their 12-game losing streak Wednesday night at Progressive Field. Would a collision between Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Kipnis have prevented that from happening?

Perhaps, but either way manager Manny Acta would have been happier than he was following the 8-2 loss to a Kansas City team that scored all its runs on the wings of four homers to win for the first time since April 10.

The play in question came in the fifth inning. The Royals led, 2-0, on Billy Butler’s two-run homer in the first off Ubaldo Jimenez. There was one out and the Indians’ defense shifted toward the right side of the diamond against left-handed hitting Alex Gordon, who sent a dribbler to the right of second base. It rolled slowly between shortstop Cabrera and second baseman Kipnis as they stopped to see if the other was going to make the play.

Jimenez retired Butler on a pop-up for what should have been the third out. But Eric Hosmer followed with a two-run homer into the bleachers in left field for a 4-0 lead.

“Somebody [has to make that play],” said Acta. “Probably Jason was closer to the ball, but that’s not what we preach around here. What we preach around here is you collide going after the ball. You don’t look at each other.”

The miscommunication wasn’t the only thing that upset Acta. In the first inning, Cabrera reached on an infield single. Carlos Santana sent a single into right field that deflected off Hosmer’s glove at first and Chris Getz’s glove at second before worming its way past Jeff Francoeur in right. Cabrera raced to third, but Santana was thrown out trying to make it to second.

“We’re not going to be hitting people around every night,” said Acta. “In order for you to win games like this, you have to take care of your 27 outs better. You just can’t give outs away.”

The Indians trailed, 4-2, entering the ninth, but Kansas City put the game away on Gordon’s three-run homer and Butler’s second blast of the night. Jairo Asencio gave up both long balls.

Luke Hochevar (2-1) pitched 6 1/3 innings for the win. He struck out four, walked three and allowed two runs. He held the Indians scoreless until the sixth when they loaded the bases, but managed to score only one run on Travis Hafner’s RBI grounder.

“He made pitches whenever he got into a little bit of trouble,” said Acta. “That’s how you get out of a losing streak by someone going out and pitching well for you.”