Sacramento A’s third baseman Zack Gelof makes the throw to first base to retire Cleveland Guardians Jo Adell in the bottom of the sixth inning at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Sat Sep 19, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

The Sacramento A’s gave themselves a two-run head start, then the Cleveland Guardians answered with a five-run first inning and never gave control back in a 12-6 Guardians victory. Sacramento opened with four straight two-out hits. Shea Langeliers singled, Lawrence Butler followed with another single, Zack Gelof drove Langeliers home, and Donovan Walton brought Butler across for a 2-0 lead. Walton then stole second, but the inning ended before the Athletics could add more.

Cleveland needed only five batters to erase it. Steven Kwan and José Ramírez singled before Chase DeLauter sent a three-run homer over the center-field wall. Jo Adell followed with a single, and Angel Martínez launched a two-run homer to center for a 5-2 advantage.

Jacob Lopez eventually got through the inning, but the damage had already changed the shape of the game. Lopez had posted a 3.60 ERA over his previous nine starts, yet Cleveland turned that recent success upside down.

Walton kept the A’s within sight. His third-inning single scored Butler and trimmed the deficit to 5-3, giving him two RBI singles in his first two trips. Cleveland responded with another long rally in the bottom half. DeLauter singled,

Martínez doubled, and David Fry drove both runners home with a double to left. Austin Hedges and Brayan Rocchio followed with RBI doubles. Lopez was replaced by Chris Roycroft, but Kwan singled home Rocchio, an inherited runner, leaving Lopez charged with 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings and giving Cleveland a 10-3 lead.

The Athletics did not fold. Alika Williams doubled in the fourth and scored on Henry Bolte’s single. Bolte had been one of Sacramento’s better September hitters, batting .298 with five home runs and seven stolen bases through 16 games. Cleveland answered again when Martínez hit his second homer of the game, this one to right field, pushing the margin to 11-4.

Walton took another swing at the deficit in the fifth. Gelof singled with two outs, and Walton drove a ball to right-center for a two-run homer, cutting Cleveland’s lead to 11-6. The blast completed a 3-for-3 performance for Walton with four RBIs, a home run and a stolen base. His production accounted for four of Sacramento’s six runs before Tommy White pinch-hit for him in the seventh.

There were other bright spots inside a rough score. Langeliers collected two singles and drew a walk after recently returning from surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee. Bolte supplied an RBI single, while Gelof had two hits and scored twice. Carlos Cortes doubled in the fifth, and Williams doubled twice and scored once. The A’s also loaded the bases in the seventh after walks to Langeliers, Butler and Denzel Clarke, but Brian Serven grounded out to end the inning.

Cleveland added its final run in the sixth when Ramírez singled, moved to second on Adell’s groundout and scored on Martínez’s single to center. Martínez finished with four hits, two home runs, a double and four RBI, while DeLauter’s three-run homer supplied the early blow that flipped the game. After Walton’s fifth-inning homer, the Guardians’ bullpen kept the A’s scoreless over the final four innings. Slade Cecconi retired all six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth.

The trip wraps with brunch-hour baseball Sunday, when Jack Perkins (3-11, 6.14 ERA, 127 strikeouts) takes the mound for the A’s against Gavin Williams (13-8, 3.78 ERA, 235 strikeouts) for Cleveland, with first pitch scheduled for 10:40 a.m. Pacific.

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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