The A’s just dropped their fourth game in a row Friday night, taking their season record to a brutal 93 losses after a 5-3 defeat against the Cleveland Guardians. They opened their final road series of the year and for a minute there, it looked like they might actually break this streak.
Early Spark Fizzles
Our guys came out swinging, no joke. Center fielder Henry Bolte and right fielder Lawrence Butler got on base right away against Guardians opener Daniel Espino. Then, with one out, Zack Gelof stepped up and absolutely crushed his 19th home run of the season, a three-run bomb to right-center. Just like that, it was 3-0. What a start!
But that was it for the offense, seriously. It was their only scoring chance of the whole game. Mason Barnett, recalled from Triple-A, got the start and had command issues immediately. The Guardians loaded the bases twice in the first two innings. Barnett managed to escape both jams, getting Travis Bazzana to ground into a double play in the first and striking out Jose Ramirez in the second, but he burned 54 pitches just to get through two scoreless frames. You could feel the tension, knowing they were putting traffic on base constantly.
Bullpen Struggles Haunt Again
After Espino left, Joey Cantillo came in for Cleveland and completely shut down the A’s bats, facing just one batter over the minimum for six scoreless innings. That gave the Guardians all the confidence they needed. They finally broke through against Barnett in the fourth. Two singles, then Brayan Rocchio ripped a two-RBI double, cutting the lead to 3-2. Ramirez tied it with an RBI single, sending Barnett to the showers after giving up three runs on seven hits and four walks in 3 1/3 innings. Scott Blewett came in and stopped the bleeding for a bit, keeping it tied.
But the bullpen struggles continued, man. In the fifth, Bazzana cranked his 15th homer of the season, a solo shot to put Cleveland up 4-3. Then, in the sixth, Jose Ramirez hit his 12th homer of the year off reliever Seth Johnson, extending the lead to 5-3. That solo shot was also Ramirez’s 1,000th career RBI, a milestone for him, but a dagger for the A’s.
Cleveland’s bullpen clamped down hard after that. Shea Langeliers came up as the tying run in the eighth against Hunter Gaddis, but hit into a double play. In the ninth, Cade Smith closed it out for his 38th save. Another tough loss, the fourth in a row, and the 93rd on the season. They’ve still got games left in this final road series, but man, it’s a grind.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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