Salazar’s improvement a silver lining in loss

ARLINGTON — If the Indians want to maintain their footing atop the American League Central, the team knows it has to play better than it has of late. That is stating the obvious for a team that has seen its lead drop by three games over the past seven contests.

During a 2-1 loss to the Rangers on Sunday, Cleveland walked away encouraged by a solid outing from righty Danny Salazar, whose recent issues compounded some problems for the rotation as a whole. That was the only true positive, along with the fact that the Indians did not lose in blowout fashion like in the previous two losses at Globe Life Park.

That did not make this defeat any easier to stomach.

“The only thing that makes it easier is that Detroit lost, to be honest,” Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “We want these games. We want the wins. As it comes down to the home stretch, and to getting into the playoffs, it all comes down to winning games. And we need to start doing more of that.”

Thanks to Detroit’s loss to the Angels, Cleveland was able to hold its 4 1/2-game advantage in the American League Central. When the Indians won the opener of this seven-game swing through Oakland and Texas, though, the club was up by 7 1/2 games. A suddenly anemic offense (Cleveland scored one or zero runs in six of the seven games) and inconsistent rotation (three starts consisting of fewer than five innings) made for a 2-5 road trip.

Under the circumstances, the Tribe was sifting through the troubles for any …

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