ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Carlos Carrasco was one strike away from throwing Cleveland's first no-hitter in 34 years and already considering ways to celebrate.
A bit prematurely it turned out.
The right-hander gave up an RBI single to Joey Butler over leaping second baseman Jason Kipnis' glove in an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
"It's part of the game. I was excited. ... I started thinking about what I needed to do, throw my glove in the air or something," Carrasco said. "It was great. I almost made it."
For the third straight night, the Indians took a perfect game into the sixth inning against the Rays. This time, Carrasco retired the first 19 batters before walking Butler with one out in the seventh.
Washington's Max Scherzer lost a perfect game with one strike to go on June 20, but he finished with a no-hitter, the second in the major leagues this season.
Carrasco walked Asdrubal Cabrera leading off the ninth, then struck pinch-hitter Brandon Guyer with a pitch. Grady Sizemore, also pinch hitting, grounded into a force play and Kevin Kiermaier struck out to bring Butler to the plate with a crowd of 11,394 at Tropicana Field on its feet.
Butler lined an 0-2 slider over the 5-foot-11 Kipnis, who jumped high in the air to make an attempt at catching the ball and fell flat to the ground as the line drive landed cleanly in the outfield.
"If Kip was 6-6, maybe (he'd have caught it)," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
"He left me a pitch to hit and I did what I could with it," Butler, a 29-year-old rookie who was in a 2-for-19 tailspin before that at-bat. "It's pretty discouraging when you get no-hit. But now it kind of just looks like another loss instead of getting no-hit for a full game."
Carrasco smiled, clapped into his glove several times and pointed at the second baseman in appreciation of his effort.
The 28-year-old right-hander was lifted after his career-high 124th pitch and Austin Adams got the final out.