Rich Hill struggles with command in Dodgers' 12-5 loss

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians scored five times in the first two iings against Rich Hill and the Dodgers never could catch up, losing 12-5 Thursday afteoon at Progressive Field.

The loss ended a six-game wiing streak and was only the sixth in the past 21 games for the Dodgers.

The command issues and inconsistency that have plagued Hill all season followed him to the mound from the outset Thursday. He gave up three consecutive singles to start the game and then clipped Edwin Encaacion with a pitch.

Later in the iing, Hill walked .147-hitting Roberto Perez with the bases loaded. A third run scored when Hill couldn’t beat Bradley Zimmer to first base on a ground ball that Cody Bellinger tracked down far from first base.

Things didn’t improve in the second iing. Hill gave up an RBI double to Jose Ramirez and a 414-foot home run to Encaacion.

Hill made it through two more uneventful iings but his pitch count was at 93 as he took the mound for the fifth iing.

The Dodgers had closed to within a run by then, thanks to Cody Bellinger’s 18th home run of the season in the fourth iing and back-to-back doubles by Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig plus a two-run home run by Chris Taylor in the fifth.

That was the high point of the afteoon for the Dodgers.

Hill walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the fifth and gave up a single to Carlos Santana before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in Ross Stripling. Loie Chisenhall launched Stripling’s second pitch into the right-field seats for a three-run home run. The Indians added three more in the sixth off Stripling and Chris Hatcher surrendered Erik Gonzalez’s first major-league home run in the seventh.

The seven runs charged to Hill are the most he has allowed in a game since June 30, 2009, for the Baltimore Orioles (when he gave up nine runs in 3 1/3 iings) and raised his ERA through eight starts this season to 5.14 with an unsightly 1.69 WHIP bloated by 23 walks and four hit batters in only 35 iings.

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