Indians Stunned by the Long Ball as A's Rally for 6-3 Win in 11 Innings; Three Takeaways

Indians fans have to wonder how this game would have looked had Corey Kluber not been taken out or if this game had been played by high school baseball rules, because frankly the Indians only played seven good innings Saturday.

Leading 3-0 heading into the 8th inning, one would think you could paint this one red and blue, but unfortunately three home runs and a few innings later the Indians fell 6-3 in 11 innings to the Oakland Athletics.

Oakland and Cleveland meet tomorrow afternoon for the weekend rubber match, when Shane Bieber takes the hill.

Here are three takeaways from the Tribe’s 6-3 loss.

1. Not So Fast My Friends

Corey Kluber gave the Indians a very Kluberesque start on Saturday afternoon allowing only five hits and two walks across seven scoreless innings. Unfortunately as things have gone far too often over the course of Kluber’s career, the Indians let this performance go to waste.

Indians manager Terry Francona trouted out Neil Ramirez who had been a solid late inning option lately, struggled to say the least. Ramirez first allowed a two-run homer to Jed Lowrie, to cut the Tribe lead 3-2. This only lasted momentarily as Khris Davis wasted no time tying things up, just like that back to back homeruns and the Indians lead was gone.

2. Mixed production

When one thinks of the Indians lineup they typically tend to think of the stars at the top of the order, which makes perfect sense since the Tribe boosts one of the most productive top three in all of baseball. Saturday was a different story as the bottom of the order produced four hits and was responsible for two of Cleveland’s runs.

Greg Allen has one his better games from the plate, the 25 yr old had two hits, including a double that scored Yan Gomes. If this type of production becomes a more common occurrence Cleveland’s lineup could become even more dangerous.

3. Powers Perfect Match

The Oakland A’s hit three home runs Saturday afternoon, good for six runs and a victory in Cleveland. The As have hit an MLB leading 77 home runs on the road this season which is 10 higher than the next closest team. So when Josh Tomlin headed out to the mound in the 11th, Tribe fans had to be nervous about the the results.

Unfortunately Indians fans were right as Tomlin has now allowed 20 HR in 46+ innings pitched this season. For some perspective on that alarming stat, the defending World Series Champion Houston Astros have only allowed 32 HR as an entire pitching staff.