CLEVELAND _ Indians manager Terry Francona often says momentum in baseball is only up to the next day's opposing starting pitcher. And on Wednesday, the Indians faced a brick wall in the form of Stephen Strasburg and fell to the Washington Nationals, 4-1.
The Indians won in walk-off fashion Tuesday night in their return to Progressive Field, a needed jolt after losing three straight at the end of an extended road trip. But that momentum was halted against Strasburg, who threw seven scoreless innings, allowed only three hits and struck out seven.
"He has a lot of weapons," Francona said of Strasburg (14-1, 2.68 ERA). "He can throw the ball by you, a fastball on both sides of the plate. He has a slider, change. He's got everything and his fastball has a ton of ride, or finish. ... It's impressive."
The Indians (57-42) managed to make things interesting in the bottom of the ninth. Erik Gonzalez walked and Rajai Davis singled, setting up Tyler Naquin, who hit a one-out RBI-single up the middle to make it 4-1 and bring the tying run to the plate. That was Roberto Perez, who couldn't bring magic to Progressive Field for the second straight night. Facing Blake Treinen, Perez grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
Carlos Carrasco (7-4, 2.45 ERA) allowed three runs in six innings and struck out five. His trouble inning was the second, in which a couple of walks and a missed double play put the Nationals up, 2-0.
After Carrasco walked the first two batters in the inning, Ryan Zimmerman grounded a ball to Francisco Lindor. Lindor threw to second for the first out, but Kipnis dropped the exchange. Carrasco recorded the second out of the inning but with the extra life, Trea Turner singled to left field to score two.
Carrasco momentarily lost his command a bit. He nearly pitched out of it, but Turner's two-run single turned out to be the difference with Strasburg in rhythm.
"Kind of lost my control," Carrasco said. "Not too much damage, only two runs, thought it was going to be more, but I held them to two. I thought that I lost my control a little bit. That's not good."
The Nationals tacked on insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Daniel Murphy belted his 20th home run of the season against Carrasco and an inning later, Turner doubled home a run against Dan Otero to make it 4-0.
The Indians moved to 5-6 since the All-Star break and have a day off on Thursday.
