Cleveland's staff ranks among the best in the AL with a 3.65 ERA, but has allowed 20 runs in the last four games. Indians' starters have yielded all but three of those runs, and Paul Byrd gave up Kansas City's only runs in Sunday's 6-1 loss.

The defending AL Central champions have dropped 12 of 15, posting a 4.74 ERA while their opponents have hit .290, to lose five straight series.

"We need to turn it around and I need to give my team a better performance," Byrd said.

Of course, Cleveland's offense hasn't done much to pick up the staff. The Indians (25-31) got just six hits Sunday after batting only .218 in May - their worst month since August 1968 when they hit .208 and the worst in the majors since the New York Mets hit .217 in September 2003.

"You've got to keep coming out here and trust in the process that eventually things are going to turn your way," manager Eric Wedge said. "As long as you keep working to have better at-bats, as long as you keep working to play better baseball, eventually it's going to come back to you."

To bounce back, Cleveland will need to hold in check a Texas team that ranks first in the AL with 308 runs, 66 homers and 295 RBIs. The Rangers (29-29) scored eight runs in each of their last two games, including a 13-8 loss to Oakland on Sunday that spoiled their shot at a three-game sweep.

Josh Hamilton hit his AL-best 15th homer and drove in two runs, giving him a major league-high 63 RBIs, but the Rangers bullpen gave up nine runs in the seventh. Texas relievers had a 1.31 ERA in their previous seven games.

"The bullpen just had a rough day," said manager Ron Washington, whose team fell back to .500 after moving above the break-even mark on Saturday for the first time since April 10.

"You take a shower and let that one go."

Cleveland's Aaron Laffey (3-3, 1.59 ERA), who will make his first appearance against the Rangers in the series opener, said he won't change anything despite facing such an imposing offense.

"I just pitch my game and pitch to my strengths," he told the Indians' official Web site. "And if that's the hitters' weakness, then I'm still going to pitch to my strength. When they beat me, I'll adjust. But until that happens, I'm just going to pitch my game."

Laffey has been dominant as an injury replacement in the Indians rotation, at first for Jake Westbrook and now Fausto Carmona. He gave up two runs in six innings of Tuesday's 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox and has yielded only three earned runs in his last five starts.

Vicente Padilla was originally scheduled to start the opener for Texas, but he returned home to Nicaragua on Sunday to deal with a family matter, and the Rangers elected to move Doug Mathis (1-1, 5.56 ERA) up a day.

Mathis hasn't pitched since May 25, when he made his first career start against Cleveland. He gave up one run in six innings of Texas' 10-inning, 2-1 win at Jacobs Field in his second start.

Mathis bounced back nicely after giving up nine runs in 2 1-3 innings five days earlier in Minnesota. Though the starter he replaced, Kevin Millwood, has returned, the Indians decided to keep Mathis in the rotation.