Indians Fall Flat Again to A's in 7-2 Setback; Three Takeaways from the Loss

For the second straight day and fourth time in five games in their recent road trip, the Indians were not up to task as they fell yet again to the Oakland A's,

For the second straight day and fourth time in five games in their recent road trip, the Indians were not up to task as they fell yet again to the Oakland A's, falling 7-2 Saturday afternoon.

Edwin Jackson, who was making just his second start on now his 13th MLB team, held the Tribe offense in check, keeping them down to two runs on two hits over 6.2 innings.

Adam Plutko took the loss for the Indians to drop to 4-2 on the season, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and three K's in the setback.

The offense, which had turned the corner and was hitting everything in sight before this trip to St.Louis and now Oakland, has struggled badly in two losses to the A's, and will have one more chance on Sunday to get the job done.

Here's a couple takeaways from the Saturday loss out West.

1. Jackson Stays Dominant Against the Indians

Edwin Jackson has pitched for a ton of MLB teams (now 13 to be exact), and with the win over the Tribe on Saturday he improves to 10-1 lifetime against them.

Jackson went 6.2 innings, giving up homers to both Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, but those were the only two hits he allowed in the victory to go to 2-0 on the year.

The A's veteran righty pitcher hasn't lost to the Indians since 2008, dating now 10 starts with wins over the Indians. His velocity kept the Indians guessing all day long, and yet again they just didn't do enough to get guys on base and then try and put a solid inning together.

They get one more shot on Sunday against an A's team that has outscored the Indians 10-3 in the first two games of the series.

2. Offense in Reverse

The first five games of this latest road trip has seen the Tribe lose four of five, scoring 10 runs over the first five matchups with the Cardinals and now Oakland.

The poor offensive showing comes after the team put up 60 runs in their 9-game homestand in which they won seven out of nine, scoring double digit runs in three of the nine home affairs.

Saturday again they not only didn't score many runs, they also failed even to get guys on base, as they were held to just three hits with two of them being solo homers by Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

The only other hit was a ninth inning one out single by Michael Brantley. The rest of the Indians lineup (spots four through nine) went 0-for-18 with a pair of walk and eight strikeouts.

Not the results the team wanted after their latest homestand.

1. Plutko's Day

Indians pitcher Adam Plutko went 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, taking the loss to drop to 4-2 on the season.

He also struck out three and walked one in the loss. After the loss Plutko stated that he felt good for the most part, more so with his fastball, but that as the game moved on the pitch started to move up in the zone and the A's eventually caught up to it.

The big hit was the A's number nine hitter, Josh Phegley, taking a 1-2 Plutko pitch and hitting it out to tie the game at two after the Tribe had a 2-0 edge.

It wasn't an awful outing by any means for Plutko, but with the offense doing nothing against Jackson and the A's relievers, it wouldn't have mattered unless he was perfect.