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.

Well, that hurts

I don't want to overstate the importance of a game played April 11 by a team that doesn't figure to contend for the playoffs anyway. But when you go into the bottom of the sixth with a 7-1 lead against the first-place team in your division, after getting six runs off Justin Verlander, you've just got to win. But the bullpen gave it up. After Jake Westbrook pitched into the sixth, surrendering three runs, five members of the Indians' pen finished it up, and only one of those five did his job.

• Jensen Lewis pitched an inning, giving up one run on two hits and two walks. He's lucky it was only one run, with four baserunners.

• Aaron Laffey pitched to one hitter, whom he walked.

• Joe Smith pitched to one hitter, getting Magglio Ordoñez to fly out to center. (He's the one guy who did his job.)

• Rafael Perez pitched to five hitters and only got two outs — on a double-play ball — giving up four hits and two runs in the process. The hits were all singles, and he didn't walk anybody, implying bad luck; but he also didn't strike out anybody, which is not bad luck.

• And the capper was provided by interim closer Chris Perez, who relieved Rafael in the eighth. He did get out of the eighth without any further damage, which left the score at 8-6. But in the ninth, the poor guy totally fell apart. He retired pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn on a ground ball to short. Then Ordoñez singled. Miguel Cabrera walked. Carlos Guillen doubled to drive in Ordoñez, making it 8-7. Brandon Inge grounded out, putting Perez within one out of a shaky save. Ramon Santiago walked, loading the bases, but Perez still just needed one more out. But he then walked Johnny Damon to force in the tying run. (How does a major-league closer, interim or not, walk in the tying run?) While pitching to rookie Scott Sizemore, Perez uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Guillen with the winning run. Catcher Lou Marson probably should have blocked that ball, but it was in the dirt, which is on Perez.

And the Indians are now 2-4 instead of 3-3. Not good.