Cleveland rocked: Indians swept out of playoffs

October 9, 2018 at 12:00a.m.

CLEVELAND — Subhead goes here and goes here goes

CLEVELAND

Marwin Gonzalez was too much for the Cleveland Indians’ ailing bullpen.

With the bases loaded in the seventh inning, Gonzalez came through in the clutch, smacking a two-run double into the left-field corner to put the Houston Astros ahead for keeps in Mnday’s 11-3 victory at Progressive Field in Game 3 of the ALDS series.

“It was an ugly swing, but I was lucky enough to keep it fair,” Gonzalez said, adding his goal was to produce a fly ball “and get the lead.”

“Everyone knows what [Trevor] Bauer can do on the mound, he’s a good pitcher,” the Astros right fielder said.

The victory gives the defending World Series champions a sweep and has them awaiting the winner of the Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees series. The ALSC will being on Saturday in either Boston or Houston.

“They are really good, Indians manager Terry Francona said. “They present a lot of challenges and they are worthy of moving on. Whoever they play, they’ll give ... they’ll be a handful.”

For the second straight season, the Indians, American League Central Division champions for the third straight season, were ousted in a Division Series. After coming so close to a world championship in 2016, the Indians’ drought has reached 70 years.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch tried to downplay his team’s sweep.

“We can’t say enough positive things about the Indians and their season,” Hinch said. “They’ have a deep lineup and there’s really no letup.”

Once again, the Astros dominated the Indians relievers, this time after a strong start by Mike Clevinger who was making his first postseason start.

Through five innings, Clevinger limited the Astros to one run on George Springer’s fifth-inning homer. He limited the Astros to three hits, three walks and one hit-batsman.

“I thought he battled like crazy,” Francona said of Clevinger. “I thought he had great stuff. Clevinger need 99 pitches to get through the fifth inning. “Obviously, a lot of deep counts,” Francona said. “They had some really good opportunities, but he made some really good pitches.

“I thought he competed like crazy.”

With the Indians ahead 2-1, Francona replaced Clevinger with Bauer, normally a starter but limited to relief appearances after recovering from a leg fracture suffered on Aug. 11.

In the sixth, Bauer gave up only a single to Josh Reddick. His seventh inning was a nightmare.

Tony Kemp led off with a single then went to second when Bauer’s pickoff attempt sailed wide of first baseman Edwin Encarnacion. Springer’s single moved Kemp to third base.

The Astros tied the game when Kemp scored on Jose Altuve’s groundout as shortstop Francisco Lindor threw to second baseman Jose Ramirez to erase Springer.

Alex Bregman then smacked the ball back to Bauer but his throw to second pulled Ramirez off the bag. Ramirez’s throw to first was late.

After Yuri Gurriel walked, Gonzalex doubled down the left-field line, bringing in Altuve and Bregman for a 4-2 lead.

In the eighth inning, the Astros scored six runs, powered by another solo homer by Springer and a three-run shot by Carlos Correa.

“We’ve got to go home now, before we’re ready to,” Francona said. “That hurts. It always stings.”