8 hits, 3 runs not enough for Cleveland

The Cleveland Baseball Club managed to score three runs on eight hits, but that was not nearly enough as they lose 4-3 to the Houston Astros.

As long as the Cleveland Baseball Club is not featuring their normal pitching rotation, three runs is more than likely not going to be enough to win. That was the case Monday night as they scored three runs on eight hits in the 4-3 loss to the Astros.

JC Mejia got the start for Cleveland and struck out a career-high seven batters in 4.1 innings. The issue is that a high pitch count combined with seven hits and four runs allowed led to his exit. Additionally, Houston did all their run scoring against Mejia. The other Cleveland pitchers (Blake Parker, Trevor Stephan, Nick Wittgren) kept Houston off the scoreboard, allowing just two hits over 3.2 innings.

Offensively Cleveland got a boost from Franmil Reyes early. Franimal launched an absolute moonshot to tie the game at 1. It was the 16th home run of the season for Reyes.

Reyes would come through again in the 6th with a RBI single cutting the Astros lead in half.

The final Cleveland run came across to score in the 8th on a RBI single from Harold Ramirez. Ramirez drove in the other Ramirez, Jose Ramirez, for his 24th RBI of the campaign.

With the loss Monday, Cleveland trails by 8.5 games in the division and 4.5 in the hunt for the second Wild Card spot. The team continues to tread water, but unless serious progress can be made they may be forced to move some players sooner rather than later.