Athletics' starter Joe Boyle gets nuked in loss to Guardians

The Oakland Athletics were stomped by the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night, losing 10-2 in embarrassing fashion. The A's have now dropped 4 games in a row after being swept by the Cardinals earlier this week, and have dropped 5 of their last 6 matchups.

A's starter Joe Boyle struggled again, this time going 6 innings and allowing 7 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks while striking out 3. With today's loss, Boyle falls to 1-3 on the year and will see his ERA jump to 7.23 on the year.

Boyle pitched well enough through the first four innings, allowing 2 runs on a Tyler Freeman homer in the second but getting through otherwise unscathed. He ran into trouble in the fifth, however, when he gave up 5 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks, allowing the Guardians to jump to a 7-1 lead.

Boyle came back out for the 6th and got through the half inning just fine but it's another poor outing overall for the young righty who could soon be fighting for his spot in the rotation.

The Athletics' two runs came on solo homers from Abraham Toro in the first and Brent Rooker in the ninth. The A's managed just 6 hits on the day and went quietly into the Cleveland night when all was said and done.

Esteury Ruiz once again found himself on the bench and seems to be in a weak-side platoon role at the moment. Even given Ruiz's flaws, it doesn't seem to be the most insightful strategy from manager Mark Kotsay, whose A's are now hitting .209/.276/.336 and are tied for 29th in runs scored.

Thankfully the Chicago White Sox are in the midst of what could be an historically bad season so the A's are just bad, rather than laughable in comparison.

They'll get another opportunity tomorrow afternoon at 3:10 pm PDT as Alex Wood and his 8.10 ERA get set to take on Guardians' starter Logan Allen. Allen boasts a 5.06 ERA in 21.1 innings so the A's will have a chance to get the bats going early on.

The A's are now 0-4 against this Guardians team and will hope to avoid a season sweep with a potential victory on Saturday. Sunday will be a tougher draw as Guardians' starter Tanner Bibee will get the nod. We'll see if the A's can snap this losing streak and get their feet back underneath them tomorrow.