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Intentional walk in 2nd backfires on Clevinger By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | 2:05 AM ET + 1 COMMENT DENVER -- It was a strategically sound decision. With two outs, first base open and Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela standing in the on-deck circle, Indians manager Terry Francona called for an intentional walk to Tony Wolters in the second inning on Tuesday night. One pitch later, the groundwork had been laid for the Tribe's 11-3 loss at Coors Field. "Those are things that kind of make you stay up at night," Francona said. Colorado's lineup dismantled Cleveland's pitching to the tune of 12 hits, including two home runs off the bat of former Indians slugger Mark Reynolds. Even in the wake of the lopsided score, though, it was the second-inning, bases-clearing double by Senzatela -- one pitch after Wolters removed his shin guard and trotted to first base -- that felt like the game's turning point. With the bases loaded, Clevinger attacked Senzatela with a first-pitch fastball low in the strike zone. Heading into the night, the Colorado pitcher had three hits in 21 at-bats, and each of those came on elevated heaters. None of that mattered, as Senzatela was in attack mode and he split the right-center-field gap with a line drive that cleared the bases and put the Indians in a 3-0 hole. Clevinger wore a look of disgust as the ball bounced through the outfield grass. Senzatela clapped his hands hard and jumped into the air in excitement upon reaching second base. "He was excited," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "Anytime you get a bases-clearing double early in a game to give you a three-run lead, it's huge. You don't expect that, obviously, out of the pitcher, against a guy like Clevinger, who's got a good arm. But it happens. That's baseball." Clevinger was understandably irked by the costly pitch to Senzatela, but it was an earlier plate appearance that really stuck with the pitcher. Out of the chute, Clevinger was struggling to find his rhythm and release point, and he noticed right away that his changeup did not have its usual bite in the thin Colorado air. To begin the second inning, the right-hander fired five fastballs to Carlos Gonzalez, who did not offer at any of them. Four eluded the strike zone and Gonzalez was rewarded with a leadoff walk. That free pass preceded a one-out single by Gerardo Parra and the eventual two-out intentional walk to Wolters. Without that first walk, perhaps the end result could have been avoided. Similarly, Clevinger walked Nolan Arenado on five pitches in the third, and Gonzalez followed with a two-run homer over the wall in right-center. "I really, honestly still feel like I beat myself," said Clevinger, who is now 2-3 with a 4.09 ERA through seven games for the Tribe. "If you eliminate the walks that happened, you're maybe looking at a 2-0 ballgame at the time. The walks killed me. They came back to haunt me." Senzatela saw to that in the second. "That was a tough pill to swallow," Clevinger said. "I don't have many words for that. I just left a fastball over the plate and the pitcher got three RBIs." Bauer faces Rox after rain-shortened outing By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 7:51 AM ET + 6 COMMENTS The Indians considered a few options to start Wednesday's game against the Rockies, but Mother Nature helped make the decision for them. A lengthy rain delay in Kansas City on Sunday paved the way for right-hander Trevor Bauer to tackle Colorado on short rest. "I don't know about Mother Nature," Indians manager Terry Francona quipped. "I think Bauer kind of helped us out in the fact that he's resilient. When we talked to him, right away he was really excited about it." Francona said that Bauer referred to his start on Sunday as "a little more than a side day," considering the pitcher only logged 28 pitches in 1 2/3 innings before a long storm took him out of the game against the Royals. Bauer, who will be working with only two days of rest, was brilliant in his previous full outing. On May 30, he piled up 14 strikeouts in a seven-inning gem against the A's. Bauer will be opposed by Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland, who held the Mariners to two runs over six innings in his last start on Thursday. Entering this series, the Indians were batting .241/.324/.381 as a team against lefty pitching, with a 10-12 record against left-handed starters. "We saw Freeland in Spring Training," Francona said. "I remember that day in spring, he not only beat us pitching, but he had a line-drive base hit. He looks really good." Three things to know about this game • Freeland pitched against the Indians on March 22 during Spring Training, holding the Tribe to one run over five innings, in which he struck out five, scattered four hits and walked one. Freeland also contributed the aforementioned two-run single off Cleveland pitcher Danny Salazar. Indians regulars Carlos Santana, Michael Brantley, Jose Ramirez, Yan Gomes, Lonnie Chisenhall and Edwin Encarnacion were in the lineup that day. • With no designated hitter under National League rules, Francona has used first baseman Carlos Santana in right field a handful of times this season. The Indians manager did not want to do that at Coors Field, given the spacious outfield. That meant no Encarnacion in the lineup on Tuesday. For Wednesday's game, expect Encarnacion to be at first, with Santana on the bench against the left-handed Freeland. • Although he's shown signs of improvement over recent starts, Bauer is still allowing a high rate of barreled balls. On the season, 20 of the 158 batted balls he's allowed have been barrels, which is a 12.7 percent rate. That's the second-highest in the Majors, among the nearly 150 pitchers with 100-plus balls in play against them. Chisenhall, Zimmer homer in Indians loss By Thomas Harding and Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 3:04 AM ET + 19 COMMENTS DENVER -- Rockies rookie Antonio Senzatela brought Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger's brief road dominance to a quick end Tuesday night. Senzatela delivered a three-run double in the second inning and threw 6 1/3 solid innings, as the National League West-leading Rockies won, 11-3, at Coors Field. Senzatela (8-2), who entered the night tied for the NL lead in wins, and Mark Reynolds, who homered twice to run his team-high total to 16 and tied a career high with five RBIs, lifted the Rockies to their third victory in the last four games. "We're rolling and having a good time as a club," Reynolds said. "Everyone's contributing. Everyone's doing their jobs. Our pitching is unbelievable." The offensive onslaught helped the Rockies overcome Lonnie Chisenhall's solo shot in the fifth and Bradley Zimmer's two-run homer in the seventh, both off Senzatela. But the right-hander held the Indians to three runs on six hits and struck out four. In seven home starts, Senzatela is 6-1 with a 3.20 ERA and has gone at least six innings in all but one outing. The usually fastball-reliant Senzatela used more offspeed pitches than usual and kept Cleveland off balance with the exception of a few mistakes. Senzatela had been touched for four runs in three of his previous four starts. "I was thinking they were looking for fastball and I was going to throw off-speed," Senzatela said. "Today I had a really good changeup for me, and a really good slider." Senzatela's bases-clearing double came after No. 8 hitter Tony Wolters was intentionally walked to load the bases. Before then, Clevinger hadn't surrendered an earned run in two previous road starts. Carlos Gonzalez swatted his fifth homer of the season -- and first at Coors since April 25 -- in the third off Clevinger, a two-run shot. Reynolds' first homer was a three-run shot off Zach McAllister in the fifth, and he followed that with a two-run homer off Nick Goody in the seventh. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Senz-sational: Clevinger struck out two of the first five batters and was in position for a double-play grounder when the Indians intentionally walked Wolters to load the bases in the second. But Senzatela, who came in hitting .143 with two RBIs, took Clevinger's first-pitch fastball into the right-center-field gap for a 3-0 lead. "You're trying your [hardest] to help," said Indians manager Terry Francona, referring to walking Wolters. "When that happens, I'm kicking myself. I would've probably kicked myself more if Wolters throws a base hit into left and we've got the pitcher sitting on-deck. Those are things that kind of make you stay up at night." More > Matter of time: Reynolds' early-season power surge propelled him into write-in candidacy on the Esurance All-Star Ballot, but he fanned in his first two at-bats and had 10 strikeouts in his previous 17 at-bats. That was forgotten when he took McAllister deep for an 8-1 Rockies lead in the fifth, and he followed that with a two-run homer, his 16th, off Goody. More > QUOTABLE "When he's hitting the ball like he did to right field, he gets more dangerous.

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