OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Kendall Graveman’s work paid off.
Graveman pitched neatly into the seventh inning of Oakland’s 2-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Friday night. Eric Sogard had the only hit for the A’s, who had just three baserunners against Danny Salazar and Cody Allen in their seventh loss in eight games.
“You look up and see three hits over the last two nights,” A’s catcher Stephen Vogt said. “That’s pretty indicative of the way they pitched.”
The A’s were limited to three hits over a two-game span for the first time in 62 years.
“You’re going to go through stretches when you struggle offensively,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “You hope you time it right when you get a good pitching effort, you also have the offense.”
Graveman allowed an unearned run and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. The right-hander dropped each of his previous three starts while allowing 14 runs and 20 hits in 12 1-3 innings.
Graveman spent time between starts working on letting his pitches do the work and trusting his stuff.
“We were in Los Angeles and the whole bullpen was setting the catcher up more in the middle of the plate and let the ball move,” he said. “I was trying to be a little too fine early in counts and falling behind. That was affecting my performance and was one of the things I worked on mentally and physically.”
Lonnie Chisenhall had three hits, stole a base and scored the go-ahead run for the Indians, who won their third straight.
“It feels good to get a win, especially the way Danny went out and pitched,” Chisenhall said. “It was good to put some at-bats together.”
Salazar (9-6) allowed an unearned run in eight innings. Allen finished for his 21st save in 23 opportunities.
Edward Mujica (2-3) took the loss.
The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the third when Giovanny Urshela mishandled Marcus Semien’s grounder, allowing Mark Canha to score. Canha walked to open the inning and reached third on Sogard’s single.
Graveman rebounded from his shortest outing of his career, in which he gave up four runs and seven hits in 1 1-3 innings against San Francisco.
“He pitched as effectively as we could ask,” Melvin said. “We didn’t support him enough.”TRAINER’S ROOM:
Indians: RHP Josh Tomlin was activated from the disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
Athletics: OF Coco Crisp (strained neck) is expected to play in at least one more rehab game and rejoin the team on Sunday. … LHP Sean Doolittle (strained left shoulder) is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Saturday and could advance to pitching batting practice if all goes well.UP NEXT:
Indians: RHP Cody Anderson (2-2, 3.26 ERA) starts Saturday. He allowed seven runs and eight hits, including a pair of home runs in his last start. Anderson is 1-1 with a 2.89 ERA in three career road starts and has yet to walk a batter in a road contest.
Athletics: RHP Aaron Brooks (0-0, 6.23 ERA) makes his Oakland debut. Acquired from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Ben Zobrist on Tuesday, Brooks will be making his second career start and his first since May 31, 2014.