Indians flee August with 5-24 record

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A record-setting month of futility is finally over for the Indians.

Friday night’s 5-3 defeat to Texas gave Cleveland a 5-24 record in August — tying the franchise record for losses in a month that was previously done in July 1914.

“It’s been the toughest month that I’ve had in baseball,” manager Manny Acta said.

The Indians have lost six straight and 15 of 16, a stretch in which they have been outscored 94-44. Cleveland is 5-28 since July 26, a skid that continues to puzzle their manager, whose job falls further into jeopardy with each loss.

“You can lose a lot in a month, but we lost a lot in just a couple of periods of time — big losing streaks that we didn’t have throughout the first four months here,” Acta said.

Acta shook up Cleveland’s lineup in an effort to manufacture some offense. He reinstated Shin-Soo Choo into the leadoff spot, dropping Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera one spot each to second and third.

“You’ve got to die trying, man,” Acta said before the game.

The fact 30 games still remain on the schedule probably isn’t a good thing for Acta and his beleaguered team. September got off to a bad start before it began. Following Friday’s game, the Indians announced pitcher Roberto Hernandez has been scratched from Saturday’s start and will be replaced by Jeanmar Gomez. Hernandez sprained his ankle Monday and aggravated the injury during fielding drills Friday.

The latest loss was more of the same for the Indians. Ubaldo Jimenez (9-14) turned in another poor performance. He allowed four runs and eight hits in an exhausting 5 2-3 innings, throwing 117 pitches.

Adrian Beltre had four hits and scored twice as the Rangers rolled to their 10th win in 13 games. Ryan Dempster (4-1) gave up two hits and one unearned run in six innings. Joe Nathan got the final two outs for his 28th save in 29 chances and 26th in a row.

Texas has the best record in the AL.