CLEVELAND — Omar Vizquel’s return was about the only thing worth celebrating for fans at Progressive Field on Tuesday night.
Unfortunately for those 29,024 people at Cleveland’s home park, their beloved former shortstop, an 11-time Gold Glove Award winner, wasn’t in town to rejoin the Indians.
Instead, he was back in the city he starred in from 1994-04, helping to prolong his former teammates’ misery as a member of the San Francisco Giants, who beat the Indians 3-2 in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
The loss was the fifth in seven games for Cleveland, which entered the night trailing the first-place White Sox by 6½ games in the Central Division standings.
And it bore a striking resemblance to many of the Indians’ defeats this year, with a quality performance from a starting pitcher going for naught thanks to an unproductive night from the Cleveland offense.
Aaron Laffey was the hard-luck starter Tuesday, allowing just a run on four hits through 62/3 innings. He left the game without a decision.
It was a familiar sight for Laffey, who has allowed more than two runs in just two of his 11 outings, but owns a 4-4 record with the Indians scoring a combined five runs in his losses.
“That’s out of my hands,” Laffey said of his lack of offensive support. “All I worry about is going out every fifth day and hopefully having a quality start and giving the team a chance to win.”
Laffey did exactly that in Cleveland’s fourth-ever meeting with the Giants. He allowed a game-tying run in the second before retiring 12 straight over the next four innings. He left with two outs, the game tied and the bases loaded in the seventh, with reliever Rafael Betancourt getting the final out of the inning to preserve the 1-all tie.
“Another great start,” said manager Eric Wedge of Laffey’s effort. “He’s been very consistent for us, and I thought he was really good for us again tonight.”
Cleveland’s offense wasn’t.
Providing Laffey with little assistance, Indians hitters plated a run in the first against Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez, but didn’t score again until the ninth, managing just four hits after the second inning.
Sanchez, a 25-year-old native of Puerto Rico who spent four years at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, stymied the Indians over 7 2/3 innings, allowing just a run on five hits, while striking out eight.  
“Their lefty was pretty good, but we never made an adjustment,” Wedge said.
A throwing error on catcher Kelly Shoppach allowed the go-ahead run to score in the eighth.
With runners on first and third and two outs, Shoppach tried to gun down Randy Winn stealing second, but skipped the throw short to second base and into center field, allowing Ray Durham to score from third.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” said Shoppach of his thoughts after releasing the ball. “I was a little hesitant. The ball came out funny. I had to make sure they weren’t trying anything funny, but the ball just didn’t come out of my hand the way I wanted.”
Wedge supported Shoppach’s decision to make the throw.
“This is the big leagues,” he said. “If he makes a good throw, he’s out. You can’t make a mistake late in the ballgame when it’s tight like that.”
It was a rough night for Shoppach, who doubled in his first at-bat in the second, but struck out in each of his final three appearances. He fanned with two on and two out in the ninth inning on a 3-2 pitch from Giants closer Brian Wilson to end the game.
Vizquel wasn’t a force in his first game back to Cleveland as a member of the opposition, but he was a factor.
His squeeze bunt in the ninth inning gave the Giants an insurance run when Rich Aurilia scored from third and Vizquel reached on third baseman Casey Blake’s error. The Indians had no defense for the bunt Vizquel dropped on reliever Masa Kobayashi.
“He laid it down there perfectly,” Wedge said.
Vizquel also reminded Cleveland fans of his magical prowess in the field, going into the outfield grass to stab a grounder from pinch hitter David Dellucci and throwing just in time for the fielder’s choice force at second for the second out in the ninth.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

 TONIGHT

WHO: Cleveland vs. San Francisco
TIME: 7:05
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Sowers (0-2, 6.57 ERA) vs. Zito (2-11, 6.32)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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