The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians’ 5-1 Loss to Oakland

The Cleveland Indians dropped their second game in a row to the Oakland Athletics thanks to one big inning.

This was an ugly series for the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe managed to score just three runs in three games against the Oakland Athletics, capped off by a 5-1 loss on Wednesday afternoon. Cleveland fell to 72-53 on the season, and could see its lead in the American League Central shrink to 5.5 games by night’s end.

A five-run second inning for the A’s against Indians’ starter Trevor Bauer was all the offense needed to secure the series win. In the inning, Bauer yielded four hits and a walk, and was let down by his defense on a couple of occasions, as two of the five runs were unearned.

Oakland starter Kendall Graveman tossed 6.2 effective innings, allowing one run on six hits. A Roberto Perez solo home run in the seventh was the only negative for the right-hander, who struck out two, walked two, and won for the third time in his last four starts.

The Indians have little time to sulk over their performance in the Bay area, as they head to Texas for a four-game series with the AL West-leading Rangers that begins on Thursday. But before they do, let’s look at what we learned from this latest day on the diamond.

Role Reversal

Cleveland came into the series as the team with the vaunted pitching staff, but don’t tell that to the A’s. The club’s starters during the series – Andrew Triggs, Sean Manaea, and Graveman – shut the Tribe bats down to the tune of a .179 batting average and two runs. The trio combined to throw 19.2 innings, posting a 0.92 ERA and 0.86 WHIP.

While Carlos Carrasco was superb in his start in game one on Monday night, going eight scoreless innings, Danny Salazar and Bauer allowed nine runs, seven of which were earned, on 17 hits, with five walks and five strikeouts in 10.2 innings of work. This to an Oakland team that had been ranked 14th in the AL in runs scored entering the series.

Anemic Offense

Three solo home runs, one each by Carlos Santana, Chris Gimenez, and Perez, was all the Indians could muster in the three games. In total, the Tribe went 20-for-96 (.208) in the series, with five walks, 23 strikeouts, and 18 men left on base.

In the last ten games, Cleveland has scored three or fewer runs seven times, yet still managed to play .500 baseball in that span. But given the recent struggles that have hit multiple members of the starting rotation all at once, winning games against the likes of the Rangers, Houston Astros, and Detroit Tigers, all of whom remain on the schedule, will likely require more firepower at the plate.

Battling Bauer

Bauer did not have his best stuff in this game, and his frustration level during the long second inning was visibly apparent, especially after Santana’s misplay of a popup that should have had the Indians out of the inning, but allowed two more runs to score instead.

Encouragingly, though, he did not fold. Take away that nightmare inning, and the 25-year old allowed five hits in 5.2 scoreless innings, walking just one and punching out two. Simply put, he pitched better than the outcome suggests.

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In his last four starts, Bauer has an ERA of 3.00 and 24 strikeouts compared to eight walks in 27 innings pitched. After a brutal stretch of five starts in July and early August, Bauer has shown how much he has grown, rebounding to give the Indians a chance to win every time he takes the mound.