A's lose 3-2 to Guardians: Cleveland wins in 10, extending Oakland's losing streak to six

The Oakland A's (19-56) have found nirvana, although perhaps not entirely for the good. It's been three games in a row for the Athletics losing 3-2 to their foes, the last one coming in the series opener against the Cleveland Guardians (34-38) on Tuesday evening after getting into the 10th inning.

The losing streak is now sitting pretty at six consecutive matches lost and no single game won since the Oakland faithful staged the Reverse Boycott back on Tuesday, June 13.

The A's started the day with rookie Ken Waldichuk on the mound, later to be followed by fellow freshman Luis Medina. None of them got tagged with the loss, though, as that'd be assigned to Trevor May (2-4) in a rather dubious effort in which the latter gave up the winning run to a right-field walk-off singling Andres Gimenez.

Aaron Civale (2-2) started for the Guardians and completed a strong 6.2-inning outing in which he allowed five hits but only two runs while striking out six A's. The Athletics' battery of Waldichuk (1-5) and Medina (1-6) pitched for the first six innings allowing two hits, one run, and K'ing six batters combined.

The A's got ahead in the scoreboard early in the game when Tony Kemp and Shea Langeliers hit singles in the third, the former coming back home thanks to a groundout by Ryan Noda. Kemp has struggled mightily this season but he's starting to get things at least a little bit right of late.

Kemp slashed .143/.226/.196 in May but he's up to .286/.444/.476 line in June. He's gotten at least one hit in each of the last five games spanning from the series against the Rays through the first matchup at Cleveland including the three outings against the Phillies last weekend.

And while Kemp bagged the homer shown in the tweet above, what was truly impressive what the over-the-shoulder catch he pulled off in the bottom of the eighth. Watch for yourself. Ridiculous, wasn't it?

The Guardians found themselves down 2-0 by the start of the bottom half of the seventh frame but they did it all in order to tie the A's in the score and extend the game into extra innings. Sam Moll (who got tagged with a blown save) melted in the seventh allowing a scoring single to Amed Rosario and a double to Jose Ramirez both with two outs already on the count.

Enyel de los Santos (W, 3-1) was the pitcher of choice for the Guardians entering the 10th. He put out Esteury Ruiz (who stole his 37th bag of the season), Ryan Noda, and JJ Bleday in order to make way for the Cleveland offense to enter the bottom of the 10th in a prime position to win the game.

And that's exactly what they did, preserving the A's losing streak.

It'll be an afternoon and rookie vs. veteran clash on Wednesday as the Guardians will deploy debutant Gavin Williams to oppose All-Star Paul Blackburn (0-0, 3.48 ERA) on the A's mound.

Williams has been on absolute fire through his brief minor-league career since getting drafted by Cleveland with a first-round pick in 2021, and he's totally earned his MLB debut touching 100 mph with his fastball multiple times on his way to the Show.