Cleveland Guardians’ Steven Kwan scores past Oakland Athletics’ Sean Murphy on a single by Oscar Gonzalez during the sixth inning at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Thu Jun 9, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s woes continued as they lost for the ninth straight time. The A’s fell to the Cleveland Guardians by a score of 8-4. The A’s lost for the 12th time in the last 13th game. A’s reliever Lou Trivino continued to struggle.

Trivino had another bad outing as he was tagged for four runs and four hits. There was some good news, however. The A’s scored four times. Their starter James Kaprielian went five innings and allowed five hits and two runs.

Kaprielian gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor in the fourth. It was Ramirez’s 15th of the year. For Naylor, it was his seventh. The A’s offense showed signs of life. A’s DH Christian Bethancourt had a two-run homer, a single, and a double. Three straight doubles in the sixth produced two more runs for Oakland.

The A’s jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. A’s catcher Sean Murphy was hit by a pitch to start the second. Christian Bethancourt hit his second homer of the year to put the A’s in the lead. Cleveland tied the game in the fourth with two solo home runs.

The A’s regained the lead in the top of the sixth. Three straight hits produced two runs to give the A’s the Advantage 4-2. A’s reliever A.J.Puk gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth. Cleveland tied the game in the seventh when they put another run on the board. Zack Jackson was on the hill for Oakland.

Cleveland put four runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth. They sent nine men to the plate with struggling Lou Trivino on the hill. They put together four hits, a walk, and an error by Trivino to tally four runs. All A’s manager could do was watch as the A’s lost again. The final score was 8-4.

Game Notes- With the loss, the A’s drop to 20-39. Cleveland improved to 27-26. Trivino was the losing pitcher. He is 1-5 for the year.
The line score for Oakland was four runs, eight hits, and one error. Cleveland’s line was eight runs, fourteen hits, and no errors.

The A’s now have two nine-game losing streaks this year and are under .500 for the first time since 2017.

Cleveland’s manager Terry Francona hasn’t forgotten the day the when the Red Sox released outfielder Mark Kotsay. Francona was Boston’s skipper at the time. Francona said,” I remember literally shedding tears when we did it. It was hard.” Kotsay said he and Francona bonded during his time with the Red Sox.

The A’s Paul Blackburn (5-2, 2.62 ERA) will go for Oakland Friday night. Blackburn has lost his last two starts. The Guardians will counter with Tristen McKenzie (3-5-3.10 ERA). McKenzie allowed just three hits over seven innings in his last start. All three hits were home runs.

The game will start at 4:10 pm PT.