By Morris Phillips

Surrendering hard hit balls in play, including three that cleared the fences, made Saturday’s lesson in baseball’s finer points a particularly tough one for Dillon Overstreet.

The fast-rising rookie who has excelled throughout the A’s minor league system was promoted for the third time this season, a nice reward for a 24-year old who has big league talent, if not at this point, big league chops.

Overstreet’s biggest issue with missing pitch locations was plastered over Cleveland’s scouting reports and brought home by his Oakland coaches entering his outing at Progressive Field. Miss, and like his struggles in his first three major league starts, home runs could result. That aspect of Overstreet’s game cropped up early on Saturday, while he was warming up.

“I could tell a little bit in the bullpen I wasn’t as crisp as I was when I was up here a couple weeks ago,” Overstreet said. “I could tell I was just a little off. Obviously it went into the game.”

Overstreet went on to surrender five runs on 10 hits, and he was removed in the fourth inning of the Indians 6-3 win over the A’s. The A’s have dropped the first two games in Cleveland, after winning two of three games in each of their previous three series.

As manager Bob Melvin explained afterwards, Overstreet was over the plate and the Indians, with just one home run hit in their previous six games, in turn went over the wall. Melvin got specific, saying his rookie pitcher needed to bust hitters inside with pitches just tantalizingly off the plate, then build on that with swing and miss strikes away. Instead, the hyped-up Overstreet was in between and elevated on home runs hit by Jason Kipnis and Jose Ramirez, the second and sixth batters of the night.

With the game tied at 2 in the fourth, Abraham Almonte hit a 442-foot bomb off Overstreet. It was Almonte’s first home run of the season, a sign that the Cleveland outfielder knew what to look for and where against Overstreet. In four starts, Overstreet has now given up nine home runs, a number that likely will insure he makes his next start at AAA Nashville, not with the A’s. According to Melvin, Overstreet appears to lost some confidence after allowing so many round trippers.

Josh Tomlin did the job against the Oakland offense, holding the A’s to six hits and two runs in seven innings of work. The veteran pitcher got a nice assist from Almonte, who threw out Bruce Maxwell at second base trying to stretch a single in the fifth.

Billy Butler and Marcus Semien hit home runs for the A’s, with Semien’s coming with two outs in the ninth inning and the A’s trailing by four. Butler’s tied the game in the fourth inning, and may have fired up the Indians.

A couple of pitches before Butler connected, he and Cleveland catcher Chris Giminez had words about some of the verbal jockeying Giminez was doing in attempts to influence umpire Tripp Gibson. The jawing continued as Butler flipped his bat before rounding the bases, and Gibson got between the players as Butler crossed the plate.

The Indians’ response came in their next at-bat with a four-run outburst that chased Overstreet, and effectively put the game away.

On the trade front, rumors persist regarding Josh Reddick and Rich Hill, even as Hill was placed on the disabled list with his blister issue that forced him from his last outing after just five pitches.   Billy Burns, however, was moved on Saturday, traded to the Royals for outfielder Brett Eibner. Both Eibner and Burns are currently playing at the AAA level.

On Sunday, Sonny Gray goes for the A’s, attempting to win for the second time on the road trip. Corey Kluber will pitch for the Indians with the first pitch at 10:10am.