Marlins end Indians’ win streak

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Indians manager Manny Acta had a simple explanation for why his team’s four-game winning streak came to a halt Friday night.

“When you only score two runs, you have to play almost perfect baseball and we didn’t,” he said after Cleveland’s 3-2 loss to Miami.

All three Marlins runs were scored by batters who had started rallies with walks. A throwing error by reliever Joe Smith led to the run that broke a 2-all tie in the eighth. Those issues resulted in bigger trouble because three Marlins pitchers held the Indians to four hits.

Carlos Zambrano (2-2) pitched seven strong innings while Randy Choate and Heath Bell worked the final two frames to stop the Indians, who were bidding for a season-high winning streak.

Justin Masterson, bouncing back from a rocky outing Sunday against Boston, allowed two runs in seven innings. Reliever Tony Sipp (0-2) took the loss, but Smith’s error made the winning run unearned.

Bryan Petersen opened the Miami eighth with a walk off Sipp and was bunted to second by Jose Reyes. Smith came on and got Omar Infante to hit a bouncer back to him. Smith whirled and threw to second, trying to get Petersen, but the ball hit the runner and rolled into right field for an error, putting Marlins on first and third.

Hanley Ramirez then hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Petersen.

Acta thinks Smith is the Indians’ best fielding pitcher, but a brief moment of indecision played a big role in the play.

“I was trying to make a play on the run and I threw it away,” Smith said. “I thought it was the right play. I’d go to second again. If he’s going back to the bag, I have to get rid of the ball.”