One shaky inning sinks Tomlin, Tribe

CLEVELAND — With a former Cy Young winner on the mound for the visitors, one inning of unraveling can be enough to send the home fans away from the ballpark unhappy.

Tuesday night at Progressive Field, Josh Tomlin was sharp except for a stretch of four batters in the fifth inning, and that was enough to send the Indians to a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the

Houston Astros and ace Dallas Keuchel.

Outside of that stretch in the fifth, Tomlin (1-3) threw six innings, struck out six and allowed only four hits.

With the Astros trailing 1-0, Yuli Gurriel and Evan Gattis opened the fifth with singles. Norichika Aoki drove a double to deep right field to tie it 1-1. Josh Reddick followed with the major blow, a two-run single to left field. Tomlin recovered to finish the fifth with two strikeouts and a weak flyout, but the damage had been done.

The Astros took advantage of a miscue by Yan Gomes in the ninth to add a run. With a runner on first, Aoki tapped a ball down the first-base line. Gomes fielded it but tossed it into right field, putting two runners in scoring position. Reddick singled to push the lead to 4-1. George Springer followed with a fly ball to right field that Brandon Guyer caught, and his throw to the plate nailed Aoki, who had tagged up.

Keuchel (4-0), who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2015, tossed a complete game, allowing six hits and striking out five. His only blemishes were Austin Jackson’s home run in the third inning that put the Indians up 1-0, and Michael Brantley’s solo shot in the ninth to make it 4-2.

“(Keuchel) came as advertised,” said Indians manager Terry Francona said. “For the amount of hits we had, I thought we actually had pretty good at-bats. But as you can see, he’s always one pitch away from a double play. He’s a really good pitcher.”

The Indians made Keuchel work in the ninth. After Brantley's home run, Jose Ramirez singled with one out. But Keuchel struck out Jason Kipnis and induced Guyer into a gameending groundout that featured a diving stop by shortstop Carlos Correa.