Unlike Friday, the A’s had a chance late down the stretch but the result is the same
The A’s have a serious Cleveland Guardians problem.
Just when it looked like they were right in the game swerving around another subpar Alex Wood start, the Guardians rallied against what’s been a great A’s bullpen, and then would clinch the game with their own bullpen slamming the door impressively.
The A’s dropped the game 6-3 and have now been outscored 45-16 by the Guardians this season.
As teams have seem to be doing all season, the Guardians started quickly against Wood. Jose Ramirez doubled home the first run of the game just three batters into the bottom half of the first, and the former Athletic Ramon Laureano doubled him home two batters later to put Cleveland ahead 2-0.
Guardians starter Logan Allen put together the best four innings of his 2024 season out of the gate Saturday, but the A’s tagged him in the fifth with a pair of home runs.
The first one was a solo-blast to lead off the inning by Ryan Noda as he smacked a hanging sweeper into the right field bleachers for his first big fly of the season.
Noda gets goin’ pic.twitter.com/QXMvS57tjd
— Oakland A’s (@Athletics) April 20, 2024
The second was another solo shot by Max Schuemann just two batters later for his first of the season as well and his first major league hit.
First MLB hit ✅
First MLB home run ✅ pic.twitter.com/82TTiCaFtq— Oakland A’s (@Athletics) April 20, 2024
Just like that, the game was tied 2-2.
After a tough first, Wood started to find a little groove until the Guardians responded immediately in the bottom half of the fifth. Josh Naylor crushed his second home run of the series on a fastball right down Broadway to double up the A’s, 4-2. Wood’s day would end just a batter after.
Wood went five innings while allowing another eight runs and four hits. His ERA drops to 7.89, but Wood still has allowed 33 hits and 19 runs over 21.2 innings to start his 2024 season.
The A’s cut the lead in half to 4-3 the next half inning thanks to an Abraham Toro triple and Shea Langeliers sacrifice fly. Just when it looked like the A’s were hanging with Cleveland 6.5 innings through Saturday afternoon, however, the Guardians would scratch across two key runs in the bottom of the seventh off of Austin Adams — the first two earned runs he’s allowed all season.
A lead-off double and single to start the inning set up first and third for Naylor, and he’d hurt the A’s again with a perfectly placed RBI single to right. Naylor is 3-8 with two home runs and four RBIs this series, and 8-20 against the A’s this season.
Two batters later it was Tyler Freemans turn as he smoked an RBI single to right to grow the lead to 6-3. Adams ERA now grows to 2.45 on the year after his first rough outing.
Although it was just two insurance runs, it felt like a whole lot more with the way the A’s were hitting the ball. After the Langeliers sac-fly in the sixth, the A’s had just one more hit for the last three innings of the game. They also struck out seven times in that stretch. Overall the A’s were outhit 14-6 on the day.
Credit the Guardians bullpen as well. Nick Sandlin, Scott Barlow, Hunter Gaddis, and Emmanuel Clase looked lights out in relief of Allen, and the A’s could never break through.
The A’s are now 1-5 against the Guardians this season, and for the second straight series, they’ll head into the finale avoiding a sweep. They’ve now lost two straight series in a row after winning the previous three.
Both teams will square off for the last time this regular season tomorrow at 10:40 AM PDT. Ross Stripling takes the ball for the A’s with Tanner Bibee countering.