HRs pester Plesac as Tribe drops 4th straight

Just one pitch stood between Zach Plesac and another dominant outing on Monday night at Great American Ball Park. The Tribe carried a one-run lead into the sixth inning, but a 93-mph heater from Plesac caught just a tad too much of the plate and slugger Joey Votto punished it

Just one pitch stood between Zach Plesac and another dominant outing on Monday night at Great American Ball Park.

The Tribe carried a one-run lead into the sixth inning, but a 93-mph heater from Plesac caught just a tad too much of the plate and slugger Joey Votto punished it into the right-field seats to give the Reds a 3-2 victory in the first of four games in the 2020 Ohio Cup.

• Box score

For the first time this season, the Indians were defeated in a game in which they scored first. In the first frame, Francisco Lindor launched a solo homer to right-center field and Oscar Mercado scored on a wild pitch in the second to give Plesac a little bit of breathing room that the starting rotation hadn’t had over the past few games.

However, a long ball by Nick Castellanos in the fourth and the two-run big fly by Votto in the sixth — both on fastballs — were enough to hand the Tribe its fourth consecutive loss.

Up next
Shane Bieber has gotten off to the hottest start to the season that any pitcher could ask for. In fact, he’s tied with Karl Spooner for the most strikeouts (27) in the first two outings of a year in Major League history. The question is, will he be able to continue his unbelievable momentum? In his first outing, Bieber fanned 14 batters and tossed six scoreless frames against the Royals. He topped that performance with eight scoreless and 13 strikeouts last time out against the Twins. Bieber will get the ball again on Tuesday, while righty Tyler Mahle will get the start for the Reds. First pitch is slated for 6:10 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV.