Pirates 8, Indians 0: Civale roughed up as Tribe is eliminated from Central Division title contention

CLEVELAND — The dream of winning their fourth Central Division title in five years died hard for the Indians on Saturday night at Progressive Field. Needing to win out to have an opportunity to overtake the Twins, Cleveland instead took an embarrassingly bad 8-0 loss to the last-place Pirates that snapped its win streak at six games. The Indians, who entered the night with three walk-off wins in their last four games, lost for just the second time in 10 games. For one of the few times this season, Cleveland's starting pitcher was at the root of a loss, with right-hander Aaron Civale allowing eight runs on 10 hits — three home runs — over only four innings. The totals were all career highs. Civale allowed three straight hits after recording the first out of the game, as Pittsburgh scored once on a single from Colin Moran, then added another on Jose Osuna's homer in the second inning. Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the third to put Pittsburgh in front 5-0 and Moran hit a three-run shot in the fourth. "He didn't have his stuff tonight," acting manager Sandy Alomar Jr. said of Civale, who has allowed at least four runs in four of his last six outings. "I didn't feel like he had that life on his sinker and his breaking ball. He couldn't finish guys off when he got to two strikes. Basically, it wasn't his night tonight." "I don't think it was as simple as that," Civale said of Alomar's assessment. "I definitely didn't execute on some pitches. It's definitely gonna sting. Not the way I wanted to end the season or anyone wants to end the season, but I don't think it was as simple as not having good stuff. I think the stuff was there. "I definitely missed some spots, though. They hit those hard and those were the ones that went over the fence. I'm not exactly sure. I'm still trying to process what just happened. I have to do that quickly and move on from there." Civale will pitch out of the bullpen during the first round of the playoffs, but is expected to return to the rotation should the Indians advance. The Indians got quality relief efforts from Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen, who held the Pirates scoreless on three hits over the final five innings. McKenize retired all six batters he faced, three on strikeouts, over his two innings of work. Like Civale, the right-hander is expected to fill a relief role in the opening round. "It was a nice job by Triston," Alomar Jr. said. "He kept his velocity and he had a great breaking ball." The Indians, who were no-hit for 6 1/3 innings in a 4-3 walk-off win Friday, struggled again offensively, going scoreless on three hits off Pirates starter Joe Musgrove, who struck out 10 over seven innings and got his first win of the season. "We've faced him before when he was in Houston, he's been tough on us," Alomar Jr. said of Musgrove, who entered the night 0-5 with a 4.68 ERA over seven starts. "He had good stuff, a good sinker and a good slider." Carlos Santana's extended struggles continued. He went hitless and is batting .141 (14-for-99) since Aug. 29, with only four hits in his last 42 at-bats (12 games). Pittsburgh's Ke'Bryan Hayes had five hits, including three doubles, and scored three runs. Minnesota wound up winning Saturday night, so an Indians' win wouldn't have mattered in the division title race, but the loss could wind up hurting Cleveland in its second-place battle with the White Sox. Chicago rallied to beat the Cubs and take a one-game lead over the Indians, while knocking them out of the fourth spot in the expanded playoff rankings. Cleveland, which returned to the seventh spot, needs a win today and a White Sox loss to clinch the fourth spot and host its opening-round postseason series. Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on Twitter.