Indians lose third straight with 5-1 loss to Royals; three takeaways

CLEVELAND-- The Cleveland Indians dropped their third straight game on Monday afternoon, falling to the Kansas City Royals, 5-1.

Much like in their previous two games against the Rays, Cleveland struggled to get any offensive momentum going and put together just four hits as a team.

"It's just the way the game goes," manager Terry Francona said of the team's recent offensive slump. "The guys, they'll be OK. It's not a lot of fun going through it, but we'll be okay."

Here are three takeaways from the loss. 1. Plutko flounders Adam Plutko picked up his fifth loss of the year after a 6-inning outing in which he gave up four runs on seven hits. While Plutko did strike out a single-game career-high eight batters, he also gave up a career-high tying three home runs. Jorge Bonifacio sent a fastball into the bleachers in the second frame. Ryan O'Hearn had his first multi-homer game, getting the best of the Indians starter in both the fourth and sixth innings. "Two guys really beat me today, and the one guy beat me twice," Plutko said. "The one pitch was down and in, and the other one was a changeup, 1-0 count. Yeah, he beat me twice and I gotta do a better job of adjusting to him." "He had periods today with two strikes where he didn't locate and really paid the price, couldn't keep the ball in the ballpark," Francona said. "But I didn't think he pitched bad. He just paid for his mistakes."

Coming into Monday's contest, Plutko's home runs allowed per 9 innings pitched was 2.01. Following the game, it rose to 2.24.

2. Junis finds his groove

Jakob Junis got his first career win against Cleveland and his eighth win this year.

He entered Monday's contest with a pretty abysmal history going against the Tribe with an 0-2 record and 8.05 ERA in four outings (three starts) for his career. In fact, last time out against Cleveland on July 2 he relinquished eight earned runs in Kansas City's 9-3 loss.

In this latest matchup, the Indians couldn't get anything going against him through seven innings. He gave up just two hits and walked no one while striking out six in his shutout start.

"He doesn't really overwhelm you with his velocity but he threw three pitches, three quality pitches, and he could throw them at any time in the count, especially his breaking ball," Francona said. "He really pitched a good game. He was efficient. When they took him out his pitch count wasn't terribly high. He really pitched a good game."

3. Waning energy

The Cleveland Indians have struggled over the last three days, dropping their third straight contest and six of their last 10.

On Monday, the Indians only put together four hits as a team, two of which came in the ninth inning alone and included a home run for Francisco Lindor. In the past few games, it's evident that energy isn't where it needs to be. As Francona said, some of that had to do with how strong Tampa Bay's pitching was in the previous series, but overall it's clear the Tribe is in a slump.

It's a problem that Cleveland needs to overcome, but one their All-Star shortstop is confident they will.

"I completely agree the energy is down," Lindor said. "Personally, my energy is down. I don't know, I guess it's something I've got to get better at and help my team day in and day out.

"It's frustrating. But we'll be fine, we'll be fine. I think it's just that point in the season like late August, early September, where guys are just dragging their feet a little bit. I'm dragging my feet a little bit. But it's not that we're tired, it's just that point in the season. But we've got to go back to playing the Tribe way and we got to go back to not taking any pitch for granted and we'll be fine."