Cleveland drops second straight game to Tigers

The Cleveland Baseball Club did not have a great outing in their second game of the season, losing 5-2 to the Detroit Tigers.

There was a wide level of variance in regards to expectations this season for the Cleveland Baseball Club. After their first two games it seems that the team is on the expected worst case scenario end of the spectrum. Cleveland failed to bounce back from their Opening Day loss to Detroit, losing this tine by a score of 5-2.

Cleveland’s starter was Zach Plesac and he even pitched well enough to earn a win on a different day. Plesac did allow quite a bit of traffic on the base paths (6 hits, 2 walks), but he only allowed 2 runs and struck our 4 batters in his 6 innings of work. The real issues came after Plesac left the game. Nick Wittgren was the first Cleveland reliever to take the mound and Detroit was more than ready to face him. Wittgren failed to get out of the inning as he allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in just two-thirds of an inning. The knockout blow was a bases loaded RBI single for Nomar Mazara to make it a 5-1 lead.

The Cleveland offense was basically Eddie Rosario. Rosario launched his first home run of the season in the 2nd inning and would drive in another run on a sacrifice fly in the 8th. Besides that it was a rather uninspiring performance at the plate.

Cleveland now heads into Sunday in a situation nobody could have predicted, trying to avoid a sweep. Considering that their offense has been mostly punchless, being on the wrong side of the sweep is a realistic possibility.