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Indians hope to find their offense against Diamondbacks

Jun 27, 2011 - 2:31 PM (Sports Network) - Scoring runs for the Cleveland Indians was a major issue this past weekend in a three-game sweep at San Francisco.

The Indians, void of designated hitter Travis Hafner in National League parks, will resume their nine-game road trip tonight against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a three-game series from Chase Field.

Cleveland managed four runs to six fielding errors against the defending World Series champion Giants and is coming off Sunday's 3-1 setback in the series finale at AT&T Park. Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner struck out 11 batters over seven innings and allowed just one run, while Indians starter Fausto Carmona was reached for all three runs in six innings for the loss.

Asdrubal Cabrera led the offense with two hits and an RBI and Orlando Cabrera finished 2-for-4 with a double for the Indians, who have lost three straight and five of their last six games. The Tribe also sits one game behind Detroit for the lead in the American League Central Division.

"We were just flat out overmatched at the plate [with] 16 strikeouts. Not even some of our outs were very productive when we had guys in scoring position or on second with less than two outs," said Indians manager Manny Acta.

Acta is already managing without right fielder Shin-Soo Choo and Matt LaPorta, and could lose the former for six to 10 weeks because of looming surgery on a displaced fracture of his left thumb suffered in Friday's 4-3 loss. The Indians will also visit Cincinnati for three games on this road trip.

Cleveland is in the midst of playing 15 straight games against the Senior Circuit and is 7-5 against the NL this season. It will send Mitch Talbot to the mound Monday and he only 0-3 with a 5.32 earned run average in his past four starts -- all Indians losses. Talbot did not record a decision in last Tuesday's 4-3 loss to Colorado and allowed three runs on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. He is 2-4 overall in eight starts to go along with a 4.91 ERA.

Talbot, a right-hander, has never faced Arizona and owns a 2-2 mark in four road starts this season.

Arizona didn't do Cleveland any favors by losing the last two installments of a three-game series to the Tigers at Comerica Park over the weekend. After posting a 7-6 victory in Friday's series opener, the D'Backs suffered a 6-0 defeat the next day and are fresh off Sunday's 8-3 loss in the series finale.

Joe Saunders appeared headed for the win with seven innings of one-run ball and eight K's, but did not record a decision after the bullpen imploded. Aaron Heilman allowed two runs and David Hernandez was dealt the loss for giving up four more runs on three hits during a seven-run eighth inning.

"I was just overthrowing," Hernandez said on the club's site. "I had pretty good location with my fastball. Just got unlucky. It's just a matter of being able to get my offspeed pitches over. So far this year, in general, I haven't been able to do that. I've been getting by with my fastball. Eventually that's not going to work, so I've got to be able to get my offspeed pitches over."

Miguel Montero and Ryan Roberts both collected three hits, an RBI and a run scored, while Justin Upton had two hits and knocked in a run for the Diamondbacks, who went 4-2 on a six-game road trip through Kansas City and Detroit, and are 1 1/2 games behind San Francisco for the NL West lead.

D'Backs manager Kirk Gibson, a former Tigers legend, said the road trip was good and hopes the club can regroup back in the desert. Gibson is counting on starting pitcher and staff ace Ian Kennedy to do that when he toes the rubber this evening versus the Indians. Kennedy is 7-1 with a 2.16 earned run average in his last 13 starts and threw six innings of one-run ball in Wednesday's 3-2 win at Kansas City.

Kennedy, who pushed his 2011 mark to 8-2 in 16 starts with a 2.90 ERA, owns a 3-2 record in nine trips to the Chase Field mound this season. Arizona has won Kennedy's last three outings and hopes he can notch a win over the Indians in only his second appearance against them. Kennedy faced the Tribe in a 4-3 road loss on April 26, 2008 and allowed three runs in five innings of work as a member of the New York Yankees. The only time Kennedy won nine games in a season was last year, when he went 9-10 in 32 starts for the D'Backs.

Arizona and Cleveland are meeting for the first time since the Indians recorded a three-game sweep at home from June 17-19, 2005. Arizona took two of three matchups in this series in both 2002 and 2003.