ARLINGTON, TEXAS (AP) - Maybe Justin Masterson is wearing down with his unprecedented workload for the Cleveland Indians.
Or, like so many other pitchers, maybe the right-hander just couldn’t get it done against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers.
Whichever the case, Masterson extended his late-season slide by allowing six runs and eight hits while pitching only one batter into the sixth inning on a 100-degree night in a 10-4 loss at Texas on Tuesday.
David Murphy homered twice and Josh Hamilton went deep against Masterson (11-10), who made his career-high 31st start and has already thrown a career-high 205 1-3 innings this season. He is 1-3 with a 5.85 ERA over his last five starts, pushing his season ERA to 3.20, the highest it has been since the first week of June.
“Give credit to them. They hit a couple good balls. David Murphy was hot tonight. I made some decent pitches and they hit ’em,” Masterson said. “They’re a good lineup. Any lineup in this park can be tough. For me, I didn’t get ahead or have command of the strike zone. They were sniffing out heaters and I come with a lot of heaters. When you don’t hit your spots well, they’ll make you pay for it.”
Switch-hitting catcher Carlos Santana homered twice, becoming the first Indians batter since Victor Martinez on June 1, 2007, to go deep from both sides of the plate.
Santana added a double between his homers, completing that at-bat after fouling a pitch hard off his left shin and needing a couple of minutes to gather himself.
“He stayed in the game,” manager Manny Acta said. “He’ll be sore tomorrow, but he’s playing first base. He made a couple good swings after that. He’s OK.”
After Santana homered from the right side off Harrison in the fourth, the Indians tied the game at 2 an inning later when Kosuke Fukudome singled and scored on a double by Jason Kipnis.
Santana had his first career multihomer game, and his 23rd homer of the season, after going deep off right-hander Mark Lowe in the eighth.
Masterson gave up six runs and eight hits with two strikeouts and three walks.
Matt Harrison (12-9) gave up three runs on seven hits while pitching into the sixth inning in his first start in nine days. The left-hander struck out four and walked one.
The last batter Masterson faced was Murphy, who led off the sixth with a slow roller up the first-base line. Masterson fielded the ball and weakly flipped it toward the bag as Murphy reached on an infield single.
That was the start of a four-run outburst off Masterson and two relievers. Craig Gentry had a pinch-hit, two-run single and Andrus a two-run double.
“We had a rough time putting up zeros. When a club scores five of eight tries, it’s gonna hurt you,” Acta said. “The long ball hurt Justin tonight.”
Murphy already had both of his homers, his 10th and 11th of the season, before Hamilton hit a scorching liner off into the right-center field seats by the Texas bullpen for a 4-2 lead in the fifth.
Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 17 games, matching a career high, when he led off the seventh with a 411-foot blast.
His 24th homer of the season came as the first major league batter faced by right-hander Zach Putnam, who then gave up a double to Murphy and a run-scoring single to Mike Napoli before finally recording an out.
“Putnam got a rude welcome to the big leagues right off the bat,” Acta said. “But he bounced back and threw some good split-fingers. Rude welcome from Beltre.”
Notes: Texas is 7-1 against Cleveland this season. … Cleveland is the only AL team that doesn’t have an off day the final two weeks of the regular season. The Indians had their last scheduled off day Monday. … Ian Kinsler extended his Rangers record with his 24th consecutive stolen base without getting caught. He was promptly picked off at second base, though that doesn’t affect his still-active streak. … Rangers LHP Derek Holland, 7-1 over his last 12 starts since July 7, is scheduled to make his 30th start Wednesday for Texas. Indians LHP David Huff (2-4) makes his ninth start since July 18. … It was the seventh time a Cleveland batter homered from both sides of the plate.
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