Key hits missing late for Tribe in loss

CLEVELAND — Francisco Lindor remained in the batter’s box for several seconds before letting the latest defeat sink in. The Indians’ shortstop stared at the ground and swiped some dirt off the plate with his foot, while the Orioles headed to the middle of the infield for the traditional post-victory handshake line.

Cleveland displayed plenty of heart in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Baltimore, but the club came up short when presented with a handful of chances to retake the lead in the eighth and ninth innings. The Indians had six baserunners in the last two frames, but none crossed the plate. Lindor’s three-pitch strikeout in the ninth ended that run of missed opportunities.

“Those are hard games to win,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “But somebody will whack one, and we’ll have a walk-off if we keep doing stuff like that.”

After falling into a 4-0 hole early on, Carlos Santana hit one into the right-field seats in the fourth inning to ignite Cleveland’s comeback bid. Three batters later, Mike Napoli whacked one, too. The first baseman launched a two-run shot over Progressive Field’s 19-foot wall in left for his team-leading 10th home run of the season. In the sixth, Jason Kipnis smashed a leadoff shot to right to pull the game into a 4-4 tie.

A hiccup by Cleveland’s bullpen — Hyun Soo Kim belted his first career homer off Jeff Manship in …

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