Josh Tomlin struggles again as Cleveland Indians get routed by Rangers

Rangers 9, Indians 0

box score

Tribe falls to 72-54

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Josh Tomlin has given up a lot of home runs this year. Pitching against the powerful Rangers offense in Arlington on a hot summer night didn’t seem like the perfect spot for Mr. Tomlin. Well, it sure wasn’t.

After a clean first inning, Tomlin quickly retired the first two batters in the second. Then came trouble. A single by Cleveland’s least favorite MLB catcher Jonathan Lucroy and a Mitch Moreland walk brought up new Ranger, Carlos Gomez, to the plate. Gomez likes to swing hard and early. He did swing hard at a 1-0 Tomlin 86 mph meatball and launched it 415 feet into the left field bleachers, giving the Rangers an early 3-0 lead. It was just Gomez’s fifth home run of the year, who is shockingly slashing a horrid .210/.272/.322 this year.

To Tomlin’s credit, he settled down after the homer, putting up zeroes in the third and fourth innings and looked genuinely sharp. More trouble, however, was looming.

Three singles in a row from the Rangers in the fifth plated another run and Tomlin looked to be on the ropes. One of those singles came on an Ian Desmond liner that could have been caught by right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall, but at least it wasn’t a botched routine play. Carlos Beltran’s roller to Mike Napoli that was thrown away into left fielder was a routine play and really put Tomlin in a jam. The jam was too much for our homer-prone starter, as he threw some upper 80’s high cheese to Adrian Beltre, who promplty blasted a three-run shot that ended Tomlin’s night.

Here’s a few not-so-nice Tomlin stats:

• Thursday line: 4 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched, 7 earned runs
• HR Rate: 2.1 HR per nine innings
• 34 homers allowed this season
• 10.80 ERA over his last 30 innings

So does Josh stay in the rotation? One more bad start and then pull him? Do you forgive him a little due to the defensive issues in the fifth inning?

While Tomlin was being Tomlin, the offense was struggling mightily against Cole Hamels. The veteran threw eight scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and walking none. It was a pretty putrid affair, sadly.

The good news is that Corey Kluber takes the hill tomorrow, facing off against the Rangers Martin Perez. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET.