CLEVELAND -- No one had higher expectations for Trevor Bauer entering the 2019 season than, well, Trevor Bauer.

After cruising through a career year in 2018, Bauer was ready to come back better this season, and got off to a hot start in March and April, but things began to unravel when the calendar flipped to May. Although he felt confident he was starting to feel like himself again, Bauer, once again, didn’t see the results he would’ve liked in the Indians’ 5-4 loss to the Twins on Thursday night at Progressive Field.

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“It just seems like anything that can go wrong will go wrong for me right now,” Bauer said.

Bauer has now picked up a loss in each of his last four outings, and hasn’t earned a win since April 30. It was the first time he’s given up three homers in a game since Aug. 14, 2017, against Boston.

“I get gun-shy every time a ball goes in the air because it seems like everything that gets hit in the air is a homer,” Bauer said. “I feel like I need to strike more people out. I can’t get swing and miss even when I throw pitches in locations that should create swing and miss. It’s been frustrating for sure. I guess you just gotta assume it will start going in your favor at some point, because it sure hasn’t for me in the past month and a half.”

With Cleveland having used seven relievers in Wednesday’s bullpen day, Bauer gave his team the depth it needed, going eight full frames on 119 pitches, but allowed three long balls -- all to Max Kepler -- that put the Tribe in a hole they couldn’t crawl out of.

“You know, besides Kepler, [Bauer] was really good,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Just Kepler had one of those kinda career nights that kinda was our undoing. He hit a fastball, changeup, slider, all for home runs. Other than, Trev didn’t give up a whole lot of hits.”

Bauer’s night began on a sour note, as Kepler drove the second pitch of the game into the right-field seats. After two more homers from Kepler in the third and seventh, Bauer has now given up 13 bombs in 91 2/3 innings this season. In 175 1/3 frames in 2018, the hurler gave up just nine home runs.

“So that was three homers, two of them I felt like were pitches that were supposed to be in my favor,” Bauer said. “Clearly, they weren’t.”

His struggles over the past six weeks have raised the question of whether the 28-year-old is battling an injury. Although he denies being hurt any time it’s asked, he’s hinted at the fact that he’s not feeling his best, physically, multiple times. The last thing the Indians need is another hurt hurler after already having four starters on the injured list.

“Right now, I’m just trying to feel good for my next start physically,” Bauer said. “My body is pretty banged up and that’s really where my focus has been, trying to get ready physically. I’ve executed really well the last three starts and I’ve lost all three of them, so for a while, I didn’t feel like I could execute because I didn’t feel like I could move the way I need to move. And now, I feel like more so the way I need to move and I execute well, but I still get beat. I’m giving everything I have for my team, but it’s been rough.”

And while he has not lived up to the expectations that were set heading into the year, no one will be harder on Trevor Bauer than, well, Trevor Bauer.

“We had a tough last couple days as a team, as a family, with Carlos [Carrasco] and that news, so the bullpen stepped up yesterday and we got a good team win,” Bauer said. “We needed a strong performance tonight and I wanted to help those guys out a little bit, and try to pull us back closer in the playoff race, and it just didn’t go that way for me.”