Indians go above .500 at home, beat Reds

Indians go above .500 at home, beat Reds

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

It’s taken longer, much longer than expected. But after four shaky months, the Cleveland Indians may be finally hitting their stride.

About time.

Josh Tomlin pitched six efficient innings, Carlos Santana homered twice and the Indians won their fourth straight, 6-2 over the tumbling Cincinnati Reds on Monday night in the makeup of a May 25 rainout.

Tomlin (7-9) gave up two homers but stayed in the strike zone and won his third straight start. Cleveland’s solid bullpen did its part as well, with Andrew Miller working two innings and Cody Allen finishing up.

Santana homered in the seventh and eighth as the defending American League champions, who came stumbling home from a 1-5 road trip, moved over .500 (25-24) at Progressive Field for the first time since winning their home opener on April 11.

“You’ve got to have a short memory in baseball,” said Tomlin, who won his third start in a row. “Baseball is a game of failure in every aspect. It’s good to understand what the road trip was and understand we needed to be better and got here, got home, and we’ve played pretty good baseball so far.”

Cleveland’s Roberto Perez snapped a 1-1 tie in the fifth with an RBI double off Reds starter Tim Adleman (5-8), who lost his fourth straight start.

Scooter Gennett and Zack Cozart hit solo shots for Cincinnati, just 2-9 since the All-Star break.

“You try to find ways to get better, but you can’t reinvent the wheel,” Reds manager Bryan Price said.

“This is our ballclub.”

Tomlin’s solid performance — he threw 49 of 72 pitches for strikes — was another positive for the Indians, who are waiting for one of their starters in the back end of their rotation to step up.

On Saturday, Danny Salazar returned from a stint in the minors to allow just one hit in seven innings.

Those outings could influence whether the Indians’ front office tries to trade for another front-line starter before the July 31 trading deadline.

“When he’s going good, that’s what he can do,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of Tomlin, who was just 2-6 in May and June.

“Those were six really good innings.”

Tomlin was dominant during one stretch, striking out six straight from the second to the fourth and allowing just one hit until the fifth.