Smoke signals

By Jordan Bastian and Mark Emery

July 30, 2013

• Following a pair of one-inning rehab outings with the Rookie-level Arizona League Indians, right-hander Josh Tomlin, rejoined the Tribe on Tuesday. Francona said it is a "possibility" that Tomlin could rejoin the big league pitching staff before the end of this season.

"He's starting to pitch now," Francona said. "I think it's good for him [to be here with the team]. I think his teammates love seeing him and it gets him back in this atmosphere a little bit between starts. And it gets him with our medical staff."

• Second-base umpire D.J. Reyburn called Alexei Ramirez safe on a stolen-base attempt in the eighth inning on Monday, but replays clearly showed Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis applying the tag before the runner made contact with the bag. Under the circumstances, Francona was asked for his view on potentially increasing the use of instant replay.

"I don't know," Francona said. "There's probably a way down the road where they'll figure out how to do it. I just don't think anybody has come up with the exact way to do it. Part of the fun of our game -- not when you're on the bad side, I know that's hard -- is umpires and managers and plays. And they're actually pretty good. There's so much replay that they have to be."

• Heading into Tuesday's game with the White Sox, the Indians starting rotation had gone a combined 8-2 with a 1.84 ERA (22 earned runs in 107 2/3 innings) in 17 games, dating back to July 8. Cleveland's pitching staff as a whole has a Major League-best 2.07 ERA in that same span.

• On Tuesday, the Indians named High Class A Carolina right-hander Nick Pasquale the organization's Minor League Player of the Week for July 21-28. During that time period, Pasquale went 2-0 with 13 shutout innings across a pair of starts for the Mudcats.

• On Tuesday, the White Sox scored first against the Indians, ending Cleveland's franchise-record streak of 16 straight games in which it scored the first run. The previous club record of 15 was set in July 1906. The Indians' 16-game run was the longest in the Majors since the Brewers scored first in 21 straight games in 1990.

Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Major League Bastian, and follow him on Twitter @MLBastian. Mark Emery is an associate reporter for MLB.com.