Three Takeaways from Tribe's 5-3 Walk-Off Loss to Athletics
The Cleveland Indians suffered a back-breaking 5-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night, as Khris Davis belted a walk-off homer to end it.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Kluber Pitches Well Enough to Win It Again
Corey Kluber did his job for the most part. He struck out 12 through seven innings, but gave up a game-tying solo homer to start the bottom of the eighth. Matt Chapman hit two homers off Kluber on the night.
Andrew Miller came in and finished off the eighth inning, but walked the lead-off man in the bottom of the ninth.
Bryan Shaw promptly came in and gave up the walk-off homer to Davis.
The Indians went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The Tribe is now 1-4 over Kluber's last five starts. He hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in any of those starts.
2. Edwin's Big Bomb in the Fourth
One of the few positives of the night was Edwin Encarnacion's two-run bomb in the top of the fourth. It was his 19th homer of the season and considering how lifeless the offense was against Sonny Gray on Friday, it was nice to see a spark from the clean up man in the second game after the All-Star Break.
3. Tribe Looks To Avoid Sweep
The Oakland Athletics (41-50) are not a good team. Many looked at this series as the start of a relatively easy stretch of games to open up the second half of the season.
Cleveland plays Oakland, followed by the struggling San Francisco Giants.
The entire rest of the month of July comes against some of baseball's lower-tier clubs.
In a time which was expected to be a prime opportunity for the Tribe to gain ground on their Central Division rivals, they've started the road trip 0 and 2, now hoping to avoid being swept by the last place A's.
Trevor Bauer takes the mound Sunday afternoon at 4:05 ET against Sean Manaea.