Defensive mistakes cost Cleveland Indians a win. Again

Indians 1, Nationals 4

Box Score

Indians fall to 57-42

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I doubt Jason Kipnis knew he basically cost his team the game when a routine double play ball clunked off of his glove in the second inning, but with a lethargic Cleveland Indians offense taking the field against a dominant Stephen Strasburg Wednesday afternoon, that's exactly what happened.

...and then happened again in the seventh inning, when a fly ball that could have ended the inning fell out of his open glove and allowed another run to score later in the at-bat.

Even before Kip's first mental error resulted in one out instead of an inning-ending double play, Carlos Carrasco was not making it easy on himself. He had already burned 25 pitches on the first six batters of the game, including two-straight walks to start the second inning. In typical 2016 Indians fashion, giving the other team free outs resulted in bad things, which in this case was a Trea Turner single that scored two runs before Carrasco worked his way out of the jam with a pop up.

Carrasco got back on track for most of the game, retiring the next nine batters without issue until allowing a leadoff home run in the sixth inning. Carrasco finished the day with six innings pitched, five strikeouts, three walks and three earned. Although, if we're being honest, only one of them -- the home run -- was really "earned." Jason Kipnis should have a pretty high earned run average after today, instead.

If you want a silver lining, the Indians continued to frustrated Bryce Harper. The superstar outfielder was 0-for-5 in the day, including a strikeout looking with two outs, a runner on second, and a chance to really slam the door shut on the Tribe. Granted, the door was already in the process of swinging shut by the seventh inning, but that would have been a nice confidence booster for Bryce if he had done anything but watch it fly ball on the inside part of the plate.

As for the Indians offense, no one besides Tyler Naquin and Jose Ramirez showed up to do much. Those two had two hits apiece, while no one else did much of anything. One of Naquin's hits was a big one, an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Tribe their only run of the game. I would like to say that this game further cements Naquin as an everyday starter, but Terry Francona has proven that he doesn't care how well Naquin hits -- the rookie is getting platooned, damnit.

The attempted ninth-inning comeback was cut short when Roberto Perez hit into a game-ending double play and the Washington Nationals actually managed to turn it. Imagine that.