CLEVELAND -- With the regular season quickly dwindling down, there’s nothing more that the Indians would want to see than Zach Plesac rediscovering the groove he was in over the past two seasons. On Wednesday night, he made small strides in the right direction, even without his best stuff.

Plesac navigated around some traffic early in the Indians’ 7-2 series-evening win over the Rangers at Progressive Field before giving up a two-run homer to Jason Martin in the sixth. After Plesac permitted a double to Jose Trevino, acting manager DeMarlo Hale turned to his bullpen, causing Plesac to come up short of completing six innings for the fourth time this month.

“Yeah, I mean he didn’t have his best stuff today, but that's OK,” said catcher Austin Hedges, who hit one of Cleveland's four solo homers. “He was still chill the whole time he was out there. I could tell he was confident, but he also knew he didn't have his best stuff, which is cool. A lot of times you don't have your best stuff, you're not going to be as confident, but he was able to maintain his confidence and just execute pitches and out-execute these guys, and it was nice to see him do that.”

Plesac was two outs away from his first scoreless outing since May 7 against the Reds, when he tossed eight shutout frames. Instead, he was charged with two runs in 5 2/3 innings, lowering his August ERA to 6.33 after he entered the night with the third-worst ERA of the month (7.17) among MLB pitchers with at least 20 innings.

The home run by Martin extended Plesac’s streak to 12 consecutive starts in which he’s given up a long ball -- the longest active streak across the Majors. The only longer such streak in team history belongs to Josh Tomlin, who allowed homers in 15 straight starts in 2016.

Although this has been an ongoing battle for Plesac, who has posted a 5.55 ERA since returning from the injured list on July 8, both he and Hale noted that there was another hurdle to overcome, as the baseballs were more slick than they usually are.

“The humidity is going to be a factor and obviously, this is something I try to be aware of going into each start, in between innings, making sure my jersey is there, dry,” Plesac said. “But it was like the second or third inning and I asked for a new ball a couple times, and I didn't know if it was me or if the balls were really that slick. I wasn't trying to think about it, I was just trying -- out of sight, out of mind, don't even think about the ball being slick.

“After the third, [plate] umpire [Doug Eddings] actually came up to me like, 'Dude, I'm sorry about these baseballs, they're unacceptable.' That's really what it was. He was doing everything he could behind the plate. He was even grabbing some dirt for me, rubbing it up and then tossing it to me, because he knew.”

Plesac’s breaking pitches averaged 2.9 mph lower than usual, and his heater was down 1.6 mph, according to Baseball Savant. But that, along with his grind through a long outing, was largely due to the baseballs, according to Plesac.

“Humidity, slicker balls, everything,” Plesac said. “I mean, we're human, you know? We're going out there competing. I'm not trying to throw any pitch slower than I normally would, it's all about executing pitches. But late, heavy August heat, couldn't do it. Guys are doing their parts, staying hydrated. But I'm not concerned with the velos being down a mile an hour.”

Despite the bumps, Plesac showed the ability to escape trouble, getting out of four innings unscathed in which at least one runner was in scoring position. He gave up eight hits, but he limited the damage and handed the ball over to the bullpen, which collectively shut down the Rangers for the remaining 3 1/3 frames. And even without his best stuff, Plesac still proved that he can find a way to eat up as many innings as possible while keeping his team in contention.

“He hasn't been through a full season like this before,” Hedges said. “I think getting used to that is going to be good for him to learn from it. … But I think plenty of guys are going to go out there, I mean everybody goes out there with their ‘C’ stuff sometimes. And I thought it was impressive for him to go out there with that type of stuff and still get outs.”