Athletics fall 6-4 to the Guardians

J.D. Davis’ two homers weren’t enough

The Oakland Athletics took on the American League Central’s Cleveland Guardians tonight at the Oakland Coliseum. Righty Ross Stripling made his A’s debut against Lefty Logan Allen for the Guardians.

The Guardians jumped on Stripling early with a two-run homer by Jose Ramirez scoring Andrés Giménez. Josh Naylor doubled. Darell Hernaiz, making his first major league start at third base, booted his first fielding attempt, putting runners on first and third with two outs. Stripling then balked to score Naylor. At the end of one, the Guardians led 3-0.

J.D. Davis got the A’s on the board with a rocket to straight-away center field cutting the Guardians’ lead to 3-1. Steven Kwan led off the fifth with a single off stripling. He stole second and took third when Gelof mishandled the throw. Andrés Giménez doubled to score Kwan. Will Brennen singled off Esteury Ruiz neck, scoring Giménez. Nick Allen doubled and scored on a Ruiz sac fly. At the end of the fifth the score was 5-2.

J.D. Davis hit his second home run of the day (and season) in the bottom of the sixth to bring the A’s within two, 5-3. But Kwan led off the sixth with a double to left and scored on a Giménez double to right off A’s reliever Mitch Spence.

Steven Barlow entered the game to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning. He walked Gelof and Seth Brown. A Barlow wild pitch advanced both runners. A Shea Langeliers sacrifice fly drove in Brown to bring the score to 6-4.

Last season’s save leader Emmanuel Clase entered the game in the bottom of the ninth to shut the door on his Guardians victory. Ryan Noda singled off Clase, and Nick Allen followed with a single of his own. But Lawrence Butler grounded into a double play to end the game.

The A’s drop to 0-2 while the Guardians improve to 2-0. Game three of the four-game set is tomorrow at 1:07 PM.