CLEVELAND — With a victory in the series opener against Minnesota on Tuesday at Progressive Field, the Indians produced their first two-game winning streak since the middle of May.
Three in a row was too much to ask.
Unable to overcome a poor performance from starting pitcher Paul Byrd on Wednesday night, Cleveland dropped an 8-5 decision to the Twins and squandered an opportunity to gain ground on Central Division-leading Chicago — also a loser — in the process.
The Indians, who received a vote of confidence from general manager Mark Shapiro prior to the game, trail the White Sox by 7½ games, while second-place Minnesota snapped a six-game losing skid to lag 5½ games behind Chicago.
A loss wasn’t the only negative outcome.
Cleveland’s all-star catcher, Victor Martinez, who has been dealing with hamstring issues since the season opener, left the game after grounding out in the first inning as a result of a new injury — right elbow inflammation.
“It’s something he’s been battling on and off all year,” said manager Eric Wedge. “Tonight, it must have been one of those swings that bit him. He just wasn’t able to get back out there.”
Wedge said Martinez would undergo an MRI today, with the club set to announce the results following the series finale with Minnesota. If Martinez heads to the disabled list, Yamid Haad would likely be promoted from Triple-A Buffalo to back up Kelly Shoppach.
The Indians endured a poor effort from a member of their rotation for one of the few times this season as Byrd lasted just three innings, while allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits. It matched the right-hander’s shortest appearance of the year in 13 starts.
And it came at an inopportune time, with Cleveland riding a win streak and the lethargic Indian offense actually producing.
“The frustrating part is that we scored some runs,” said Byrd, who has developed a disturbing pattern of pitching well one outing and poorly the next, going 1-3 with a 7.18 ERA over his last five starts. “We have to win that game. I shoulder the blame for the loss tonight. It’s pretty much all on me.”
Byrd (3-6, 4.89) allowed an unearned run in the second — courtesy of third baseman Casey Blake’s throwing error — but the Indians matched it with one of their own in the bottom of the inning on Jamey Carroll’s two-out double. Carroll and Blake accounted for six of Cleveland’s 10 hits.
The bottom fell out on Byrd in the third, with Minnesota scoring five times to go up 6-1 on a two-run home run from Jason Kubel. Byrd allowed five of the first six batters he faced in the inning to reach base, allowing consecutive extra-base hits to Justin Morneau (two-run double), Michael Cuddyer (RBI double) and Kubel.
“I started rushing a little out of the stretch and just couldn’t keep the ball down,” Byrd said. “It got out of hand quick. It was like a pin-ball machine, balls flying everywhere.”
“He didn’t have it tonight,” Wedge said of Byrd. “He wasn’t throwing the ball where he wanted to and they were squaring it up on him.”
A pair of Cleveland relievers — Scott Elarton and Rick Bauer — kept the score intact by combining to work four scoreless innings, with Indians hitters offering up a surprising response by rallying to get within one of the Twins’ advantage in the seventh.
Shoppach, in for Martinez, connected on a solo homer in the sixth off Minnesota starter Nick Blackburn, with the Indians making it 6-5 on Grady Sizemore’s three-run shot — his team-leading 13th — in the seventh off Twins reliever Dennis Reyes.
The steam was taken out of the comeback bid when closer Joe Borowski allowed a pair of runs in the ninth and the Indians went quietly in the bottom of the inning against Twins closer Joe Nathan.
“The guys did a good job of coming back,” Wedge said. “We just weren’t able to finish it off.”
That’s been an ongoing theme for the Indians, who have rallied to win just once this season when facing a deficit of three runs of more.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

TONIGHT

WHO: Minnesota at Cleveland
TIME: 7:05
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Laffey (3-3, 2.98 ERA) vs. Hernandez (6-3, 5.32)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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