Oakland A’s Max Schuemann slugs a top of the fifth inning home run off of the Cleveland Guardians pitcher Logan Allen at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Sat Apr 20, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (8-13) were a lot more competitive than they were in Friday’s game although coming up short losing to the Cleveland Guardians (15-6) 6-3. The Cleveland pitching is a tough nut to crack, one of the reasons that they are the best team in baseball right now.

Game recap: Unlike the game Friday, it was the Guardians first up on the board in the first inning taking a 2-0 lead. Jose Ramirez doubled and David Fry scored for the early 1-0 lead. Cleveland would add to their lead in the first off the bat of Ramon Laureano driving Ramirez home for a 2-0 tally.

Neither team would score in the second, third nor fourth innings. Oakland tied up this game in the fifth inning when both Ryan Noda and Max Schuemann hit back-to-back solo home runs. This was Schuemann’s first MLB hit and it was a dandy, in fact he came very close to a home run in his first at bat in this game.

This tie game was short-lived. In the bottom of the fifth inning the Guardians broke the tie taking a 4-2 lead. Josh Naylor homered with Steven Kwan on base and Cleveland had a 2-run lead 4-2.

Oakland pitcher Alex Wood went five innings before being relieved by Michael Kelly. He allowed 8 hits, four runs with 4 strikeouts. It was a challenging game for Wood on the mound. Kelly pitched one inning allowing one hit, no runs with 2 strikeouts.

In the sixth inning, the A’s Abraham Toro tripled and Oakland was threatening to tie up this game. The A’s were unable to tie up the game but Shea Langeliers hit a sacrifice, Toro scored and Oakland trailed by a single run 4-3 in this highly competitive contest. The question now, could the A’s remain competitive.

Oakland’s Austin Adams relieved Kelly on the mound in the seventh inning. The Guardians added another run in the inning taking a 5-3 lead with one out and runners on first and second. Josh Naylor singled Steven Kwan home for the 5-3 tally.

Cleveland would strike again in the seventh when Tyler Freeman singled and David Fry scored for a 6-3 Guardian lead. Through seven innings the A’s had five hits while Cleveland had 13. There was some lop-sided offense going on in this game. Again it was the Guardian pitching that was giving Oakland a lot of trouble.

In the top of the eighth inning, the A’s tried to put something together. They had a runner, Zach Gelof on base on a walk with one out and Abraham Toro at the plate. Toro struck out and Shea Langeliers came to the plate and pop flied out and the A’s were unable to add to their score continuing to trail by the score of 6-3.

Oakland was running out of innings. In the bottom of the eighth inning there was a pitching change for the A’s as TJ McFarland took over on mound. He faced Steven Kwan who had been on fire the entire series.

Kwan singled with two outs after already having 4 hits and two runs. David Fry struck out looking for the third out and the A’s had the ninth inning to make any sort of move. Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase got the job done striking out the A’s Lawrence Butler for the final out and that was the ballgame 6-3.

After the first two games in this series it is easy to see why Cleveland has one of the best records in MLB. They now have a 15-6 record with the Yankees right on their heels. They have extraordinary starters and an excellent bullpen.

These were a couple of tough games for the Oakland A’s. They had six hits while the Cleveland Guardians finished with 14 hits. Oakland did have two home runs in the game but both were solo. The highlight of this game for A’s fans in attendance was the home run coming off the bat of Schuemann his first career hit, which turned out to be his first career home run.

His first big-league hit was his first big-league homer, a very special moment for Schuemann and his family and friends in the stands supporting him. This was Oakland’s 6th game with 2+ home runs.

Game notes: Friday, the A’s took a beating at the hands of the Guardians in game one of this series at Progressive Field. The A’s hit solo home runs in the first and the ninth innings but the Guardians scored ten runs in innings two through nine for the 10-2 win. Cleveland was relentless and the A’s had a lot of trouble offensively. Cleveland had an excellent game on the mound and Saturday’s game was no exception either as the won again beating Oakland by three runs 6-3.

Oakland will try to salvage the series Sunday and avoid the sweep in game three of this series before moving on to New York and a four-game series with the Yankees on Monday. First pitch in game three Sunday is scheduled for 10:40 AM. Ross Stripling (0-4 ERA 5.32) will get the start for Oakland and Tanner Bibee (1-0 ERA 4.82) will take the mound for the Guardians.