Kluber helps Tribe snap 8-game slide with 5-2 road win at Texas

6/12/2013

ARLINGTON, Texas — Corey Kluber allowed one run over eight innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers 5-2 Tuesday night to snap an eight-game losing streak.

The Indians also ended a 12-game road losing streak.

Mark Reynolds had RBI single in the fourth off Derek Holland (5-3) that put Cleveland ahead to stay. Drew Stubbs added a two-run single in the fifth and scored on a single by Nick Swisher, who had only two hits his previous 28 at-bats.

Kluber (4-4) went to Coppell High School, which is less than 25 miles from Rangers Ballpark. The right-hander struck out three with three walks and benefited from three double plays.

Lefty Holland, who pitched a season-low 4 1-3 innings, was 4-0 with a 2.40 ERA in his previous seven starts.

Holland struck out the game’s first three batters on 11 pitches. But the left-hander was gone after his only walk loaded the bases with one out in the fifth after the Indians already scored three times that inning. The Ohio native had been 3-0 in six previous career starts against Cleveland.

Neither team took pregame batting practice on the field after a busted water pipe under the infield caused a sinkhole right behind the mound. Workers had to dig more than 3 feet deep to try to fix the pipe, but completed the repair and had the grass back in place behind the mound about an hour before the game.

With his team mired in the losing streak, Cleveland manager Terry Francona joked before the game that there were no Bull Durham-like shenanigans by his team trying to get a day off.

“We’re not there yet,” Francona said with a chuckle about the reference to a scene in the Kevin Costner baseball movie. “We’re frustrated, but we’re not there.”

The Indians were glad they got to play, and feeling better when the game was over.

Ryan Raburn had a leadoff double in the fourth and scored on Reynolds’ second hit of the game. Reynolds was 2 for 25 the first seven games of the trip that ends with today’s series finale.

Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the Cleveland lineup, had consecutive singles to start the fifth. Both moved up a base on Holland’s errant pickoff throw into center when trying to pick Gomes off second base. Stubbs followed with his runs-producing hit before Jason Kipnis was hit by a pitch to bring up Swisher.

Elvis Andrus led off the Texas first with a single but was quickly erased on a double play when David Murphy lined out to third baseman Reynolds. Nelson Cruz grounded into a double play after A.J. Pierzynski’s leadoff walk in the second.

After Kluber walked Leury Garcia and Andrus to start the sixth, Garcia was thrown out trying to advance to third on Murphy’s flyout to left..

McDONALD RETURNS TO TRIBE: John McDonald is back with the Cleveland Indians nearly nine years after playing his last game for his first major league team.

McDonald, 38, was in uniform and on the bench for the Indians’ game, a day after Cleveland reacquired the utility infielder.

“It was a lot of fun when I was here, and it’s good to be wearing these colors again, and have a Wahoo on,” McDonald said. “You never know where baseball is going to take you. ... I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to wear it again as a player.”

With shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera on the disabled list with a right quadriceps strain, and expected to be out another two to four weeks, the Indians got McDonald from Pittsburgh in a trade Monday for a player to be named or cash considerations.