Indians Offense Absent Again; Fall in Finale in Oakland 5-1 to A’s

The Indians didn’t exactly fly out of Oakland with the momentum they wanted on Wednesday, as a big five-run inning by the A’s was all it took to top the Tribe in the finale of a three-game set 5-1.

The loss put the Tribe now at 6 games over the Tigers in the AL Central, as Detroit will try to cut it to 5.5 tonight as they play the Twins. Third place Kansas City will look to get to 6.5 as they take on the Miami Marlins this evening.

The big inning for Oakland came in the second inning, as two singles, a sac fly and an error by Carlos Santana netted them the crooked inning.

Trevor Bauer did last 6.2 innings for the Indians, but takes the loss after allowing three earned runs, two walks and three strikeouts to fall to 9-6 on the season.

The Tribe offense was awful in the three-game set, scoring a total of three runs against A’s starting pitchers Kendall Graveman, Ryan Dull, and Sean Manaea, three starters who are a combined 22-20 on the season.

About the only highlight for the offense, which pounded out nine hits on Wednesday, was a solo homer by Roberto Perez in the 7th that avoided the shutout.

Next up for the Indians is a critical four-game set against first-place Texas, a team that at 73-53 is .5 ahead of the Indians in the overall American League standings.

Game one of that four-game set in Arlington is Thursday at 8:05pm, as struggling Josh Tomlin (11-7) goes for the Indians against Cole Hamels (13-4) for the Rangers.

Tomlin has yet to win a game in the month of August.