Clevinger with a good outing but Pinder leads Athletics to victory on career night, Three Takeaways from 3-1 Loss

CLEVELAND, Ohio - On Wednesday, the Cleveland Indians and the Oakland Athletics played their third game out of a four-game series. The Indians won the two games prior to Wednesday night and are coming into Wednesday with a 3 game winning streak.

Heading into the game the Cleveland Indians posted a record of 27-23 and the Oakland Athletics came in with a 22-29 record.

On Memorial Day the Indians defeated the Athletics by a score of 5-3 and on Tuesday had a come from behind victory with a final score of 9-4.

With the loss, the Indians fall to 27-24 on the season. The Athletics improved to 23-29 on the season and will be looking to split the series tomorrow at 12:10.

Here's our three takeaways from the Indians 3-1 loss.

1.) Clevinger Contributes a Quality Start

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger, gave the Indians a quality start this evening.

Clevinger pitched 6 2/3 innings, gave up 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts, 2 homers allowed, and threw 108 pitches/ 68 of them for strikes.

Clevinger had 7 strikeouts in the first 4 innings in his start this evening but did not add anymore following the 4th. Clevinger was one strikeout shy of tying his career-high in strikeouts (8).

Clevinger just had trouble with one batter in the Athletics lineup Chad Pinder, Pinder was 2-2 against Clevinger and hit two homers off of him, he also drove in 3 RBIs. Pinder had a career-high three hits, recorded his first multi-homer game, and also set a career-high of 3 RBIs in a game. Indians pitching in the first three games of the series have struck out 42 Athletics batters. 2.) 16 In a Row In the 4th inning of the game on Wednesday Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, homered to left field. At the time the Athletics were leading 1-0 until Lindor tied things up with that home run. With Lindor's homer in the 4th inning that marked 16 consecutive games that the Indians had hit a home run in.

The Indians will be looking to tie their longest home run streak tomorrow afternoon.

With Lindor's homer in the 4th inning, that was his 12th of the season which ties his total from 2015 (the year he debuted) and is only three homers shy of his career high of 15 that he set last season.

3.) Sean Manaea shuts down the Indians offense

Sean Manaea limited the number of mistakes he made in this evening's ballgame just to one. Manaea's one mistake was the homer that he gave up to Lindor in the fourth inning that tied the game 1-1 until the 5th inning.

Manaea only allowed 3 hits in his start, pitched 7 innings, gave up 1 earned run, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, and one home run allowed.

Manaea retired the first 10 batters to start the night until he gave up the solo homer to Lindor. The Athletics starter earned his 4th victory of the season.

Sean Manaea has had two career starts against the Indians, in his previous outing on August 23, 2016, he also went 7 innings, allowed 1 run, and gave up 3 hits. He has only allowed one run over his last 17 innings, has struck out 19 and only walked 2 batters.

With the Indians loss, the team breaks a 3 game winning streak.

The Indians will be looking to win the series tomorrow at 12:10 P.M. The Indians will be sending out Corey Kluber (who is coming off of the disabled list) and will be opposed by Jharel Cotton.