Bauer can't wiggle out of trouble in early exit

CLEVELAND -- Two balls that hit the chalk in right field for ground-rule doubles. A broken-bat single. Another infield single that slipped under the bare hand of third baseman Giovanny Urshela.

Six days after throwing seven innings of shutout ball against the Cubs, Indians starter Trevor Bauer was picked apart in an 8-5 loss to the Tigers on Monday night, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits and four walks in just three-plus innings -- his shortest outing of the season.

Bauer felt like he was hitting his spots and inducing weak contact. Over half of the balls in play against him fell in for hits.

"At some point balls that are bloops are going to fall," Bauer said. "They all just seemed to fall tonight. I think of their nine hits off me, two were hit hard. It makes it tough against a lineup like that when all the weak contact induced does fall and you've got to keep trying to pitch around having guys all over the bases."

Ian Kinsler started things with a ground ball through the hole between third and short. Miguel Cabrera got jammed, but he fought one off to center field. Then, Yoenis Cespedes drove in Kinsler with a slicing ground-rule double that hit the chalk down the right-field line.

Video: DET@CLE: Cespedes plates Kinsler with a double

Romine mimicked Cespedes' ground-rule double with a bloop to begin the second. An infield hit by Jose Iglesias moved him over. A ground ball that didn't leave the infield brought in the run.

"As the game wore along and the innings got long, all those hits fell in and I wasn't able to attack them as efficiently as I would like to," Bauer said. "They're just hitters. Good ones, but they're just hitters."

Granted, Bauer didn't do himself any favors by walking four batters [one intentional] in his abbreviated outing. And the leadoff home run by Cespedes in the third, on a low-and-away fastball, was certainly well-struck. As was the single off the wall by Victor Martinez that drove in the two batters before him -- both had walked -- and ended the pitcher's night.

Bauer threw more than 20 pitches in three of his four innings, and by his final frame, he had seemingly lost his command, throwing just eight of his 23 pitches for strikes.

"I think I threw 54 pitches through two innings and on a hot, muggy day like that, it wears on you," Bauer said. "That's kind of how that one played out."