OAKLAND, Calif. — It’s been a season of firsts for a virtually new Athletics team, and Sunday offered up two more.
The A’s let it get away early in a 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at the Coliseum, their first three-game losing streak of the season as well as the first time getting swept in a series.
It was the first series sweep by Cleveland in Oakland since 2000, with the A’s and Guardians both having records of 10-12. It came before a Little League Day-infused crowd of 14,945 — the A’s biggest draw since opening night.
Making his first start of the season after rehabbing an inflamed AC joint in his right shoulder, James Kaprielian (0-1) lost sight of the strike zone in the third inning and Cleveland capitalized on the wild spell in a four-run inning. Right-hander Tristan McKenzie (1-2) threw 6 1/3 innings for the Guardians, giving up three singles with no walks and seven strikeouts. He got relief help from Bryan Shaw, Eli Morgan, Anthony Gose and Trevor Stephan.
Kaprielian gave up a run in the second on an RBI double by Luke Maile but came undone in the third when he couldn’t throw a strike. He threw 13 pitches to Jose Ramirez, Owen Miller and Josh Naylor and only one was a strike. Ball four to Naylor wasn’t close,and Kaprielian got the hook after the three consecutive walks in favor of Jacob Lemoine.
With the bases loaded, youth managers all over the park were lecturing their players on the evils of free base runners and warning them what would likely happen next. Sure enough, Franmil Reyes singled to bring in a pair of runs, and Andres Gimenez followed with a double to drive in another and Cleveland led 4-0. Lemoine uncorked a wild pitch with Myles Straw at the plate, which brought in Reyes with the fourth run of the inning and a 5-0 lead.
It was a nightmare inning for a staff that has been surprisingly good through the first 21 games, with the first three runs coming across the plate via hitters that had walked, and the final on a wild pitch. Basically a complete loss of control.
The A’s averted a shutout when Gose walked the first two hitters in the bottom of the ninth, with both Sean Murphy and Stephen Piscotty scoring on a pinch double by Christian Bethancourt and a sacrifice fly by Chad Pinder. Kevin Smith doubled in a third run against Gose before the Guardians went to Stephan to get the final two outs.
The Guardians made it 6-0 in the fourth courtesy of an infield error by Elvis Andrus, with Stephen Kwan reaching base. He scored on a single by Naylor. A sacrifice fly by Miller against Justin Grimm increased the lead to 7-0 in the sixth.
NOTES
— Sheldon Neuse and Elvis Andrus had infield errors for the A’s, who have committed at least one error in 10 of their last 11 games and have 19 errors for the season. They entered Sunday’s game with the third-most errors in the American League. Neuse leads the A’s with six errors.
— The A’s open a three-game series with Tampa Bay Monday night at 6:45 p.m. with Daulton Jefferies (1-3, 3.26 ERA) facing Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 3.50).
