Carrasco unable to clean up messy first

ARLINGTON — A mess of things created a dicey first-inning situation for Carlos Carrasco. There were a couple of hits, an error and a mental mistake behind him. He also balked at an unfortunate time. It was an opportunity for Carrasco, one of baseball’s best arms, to pull off an escape act.

“It was a bad inning,” Indians manager Terry Francona said after a 7-0 loss to the Rangers on Saturday night. “And then, he gets a strikeout and throws a terrible pitch.”

A bad first inning escalated into an ugly one — punctuated by a grand slam by Mitch Moreland — and that was all she wrote for Cleveland in Texas.

As has been a concerning trend for the Tribe, a starting pitcher made an early exit with a crooked number on the scoreboard. Carrasco was not entirely at fault in this one, but the Rangers’ five-run lead after one, and seven-run cushion after three, was more than enough to send the Indians to a second blowout loss in three games.

Starters Josh Tomlin and Danny Salazar have been going through their own struggles of late, but now Carrasco had a statistical setback of his own. The big right-hander hit the showers after four innings in which he allowed seven runs (three earned) on eight hits. It marked the ninth time this month that an Indians starter has been charged with at least six runs in fewer than five innings.

“That is a hard way to …

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