Another tough loss

Some quick thoughts on the Indians' 4-2 loss to the Rangers in yesterday's home opener:

• First, the positive: Fausto Carmona was pretty good. He went eight innings, giving up just two runs. I'm still concerned about his strikeout-to-walk ratio — he had four of each yesterday — but he kept the ball in the yard. With the exception of the fifth inning, when the Rangers got both their runs, he got the big outs when he needed to.

• Now, the negative: The bullpen was bad. Chris Perez was bloody awful, for the second day in a row. Joaquin Arias opened the ninth with a double, then Perez had a chance to retire him at third on Taylor Teagarden's bunt, but made a bad throw. He obviously was totally flustered at that point, walking No. 9 hitter Elvis Andrus on four pitches. And Manny Acta had seen enough from Perez.

• Tony Sipp came in and got former teammate Ryan Garko on a popup to second, then Jamie Wright followed by getting Michael Young on a tailor-made double-play ball to end the threat. If only Wright had done as well in the 10th. He gave up Nelson Cruz's fifth home run of the young season, scoring Josh Hamilton, who had singled, and the Tribe bats couldn't get it done in the bottom of the 10th.

• The Indians came close to winning this game. If Travis Hafner were just a little bit faster — not Kenny Lofton fast, but even Sandy Alomar fast — he'd have scored from second on Matt LaPorta's single. Instead, he got thrown out at the plate. And in the bottom of the ninth, LaPorta and Luis Valbuena both made loud outs. If the wind hadn't been blowing in from right field, Valbuena's would have been a walk-off home run. But that's baseball. As it's been said many times, it's a game of inches.