CLEVELAND — Jake Westbrook made his return to the mound Wednesday at Progressive Field. The triumphant part is going to have to wait for him and his teammates.
Despite Westbrook pitching well enough to win and Cleveland’s offense making a rare appearance, the Indians still lost for the 10th time in 12 games, dropping a 6-5 decision to the White Sox that gave Chicago the series and a decided mental edge over its Central Division rival.
The first-place Sox, who have won 11 of their last 14, left town with a 5½-game advantage in the division standings over the Indians, whom they have beaten six times in nine games, including six of the last seven.    
“It was three hard-fought games,” said an unusually terse Indians manager Eric Wedge of the series. “We could have won two of them or done even better than that but that club over there is playing with a little more confidence, and with all those veterans over there, are probably a little bit tougher right now.
“We had multiple chances to win that ballgame or hold onto leads. In the end, we didn’t make pitches when we needed to make pitches and we didn’t get hits when the game was on the line late.”  
Instead of the Indians’ sagging lineup letting the club down, which has been an ongoing theme, it was the bullpen pulling the rug out this time around — namely right-hander Rafael Betancourt, who turned a two-run lead into a one-run loss after entering the game in the seventh inning.
After Rafael Perez left two on base with no outs — one on an error by third baseman Andy Marte — Betancourt retired the first batter he faced on a sacrifice bunt attempt from Orlando Cabrera.
But it went downhill from there with Betancourt allowing consecutive doubles to A.J. Pierzynski and Carlos Quentin, the latter’s driving in the game-tying and go-ahead runs.
Impenetrable during a career year as a setup man last season, Betancourt has been anything but in 2008. He is 1-3 with a 5.56 ERA in 23 appearances, allowing 10 earned runs over his last 15 2/3 innings (16 games).
Wedge, who took his reliever to task a bit following the game, strongly believes that Betancourt’s problems stem from his failure to throw inside. Betancourt flourished by working the outside of the plate and locating his pitches to perfection last year.
“Until he starts throwing inside, they’re going to keep leaning out over the plate and hitting him,” Wedge said. “He has enough command to throw the ball on both sides of the plate.”
Betancourt blew the save and took the loss for the Indians, who have converted just nine of their 18 save opportunities this year.
His performance ruined an otherwise positive day for the Indians, who got a solid outing from Westbrook and appeared to be en route to winning the series, when they scored three times in the sixth to retake the lead, 5-3.
Back after missing more than a month with a rib cage injury, Westbrook gave the Indians a chance to win by allowing three runs on five hits over five innings. He held the Sox scoreless on one hit through three innings but began to wear in his final two innings of work, with Chicago scoring three times to go up 3-2.
“I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like to be and it showed late in the game,” Westbrook said.
“Jake battled,” Wedge said. “He didn’t have the command he usually does, but he battled and gave us a chance to win.”
Though the Indians scored enough runs to earn a better fate, their offense still showed signs of the inefficiency that has accompanied it for the majority of the season.
Cleveland put the first two runners aboard in the ninth inning off White Sox closer Bobby Jenks, and after a sacrifice bunt from Jamey Carroll, had runners on second and third with one out. They failed to score when Ben Francisco popped up on the first pitch he saw and Victor Martinez produced the same result to end the game.
“We didn’t drive in runs when we had the opportunity, and in this game, you pay for it,” Martinez said.
Wedge questioned the approach of his final two hitters.
“They swung at pitches you’re not going to be able to do anything with,” he said.  
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

NEXT UP

WHO: Cleveland at Kansas City
WHEN: Friday, 8:10 p.m.
WHERE: Kauffman Field, Kansas City, Mo.
PITCHERS: Lee (7-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. Meche (3-7, 5.35)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

 

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