A’s 3 Indians 1: Tomlin A Hard Luck Loser

If you stayed up and you like pitching, this was your game. However, the Indians ended up on the short end of the stick for the first time in a week.

Starters Trevor Cahill and Josh Tomlin matched each other pitch for pitch all night. The difference: Cahill was able to keep the ball in the park and Tomlin had to face Tribe killer David DeJesus. The former Royal was a familiar face to Tribe fans, but Tomlin had never faced him before. He wishes he still hadn’t.

DeJesus entered last night’s contest hitting .227 with no homers. He hit not one, but two jacks off of Tomlin. The rest of the A’s were 1-25 against the Tribe starter. The solo blasts would be all Cahill and the A’s pen would need in the 3-1 win. 

“They were both fastballs. One was in — I was trying to go in for a purpose — but I guess it didn’t go in enough,” Tomlin said. “The second one I was trying to throw the two-seamer down away and it stayed middle. It is frustrating but that happens. If I lock in better against DeJesus maybe that’s not the outcome of the game.”

For the second straight start, Tomlin’s brilliance was wasted. After so many games where they came up with the big hit, the Indian offense failed to come through. They were just 1-8 with runners in scoring position and 2-12 with runners on base.

“We had some good at-bats,” said Acta. “We hit some balls hard. But we couldn’t get a big hit.”

Credit has to go to Cahill, now 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA, who was brilliant. He went seven innings, allowing just one run on a Travis Hafner bloop RBI single in the third.

“Cahill was tough,” Manny Acta said. “I thought we did a very good job running his pitch count up, but still we couldn’t get that big hit. He just had us beating the ball on the ground pretty much the whole night.”

The Tribe had a chance to tie it in the eighth after Travis Hafner and Orlando Cabrera hit back to back two-out singles, but reliever Brad Ziegler retired Michael Brantley on a groundout to end the threat.

It was a pretty clean game, except for a key insurance run in the eighth. Tomlin had just retired his 13th consecutive batter when Mark Ellis hit a grounder to third that was booted by Jack Hannahan. After a strike out, Cliff Pennington, in a great at-bat, singled up the middle to end Tomlin’s night. It was only the third hit he had given up, and the first to anyone not named David DeJesus. He also didn’t walk anyone and struck out five.

Tony Sipp came in to get Coco Crisp, but the former Indian hit his first pitch back up the middle to drive in Ellis and end the scoring on the night. You can chalk this one up to being “one of those nights.” You can’t win ’em all, though it seems like the Indians are certainly trying to.

The rubber match in Oakland is an afternoon tilt. First pitch is at 3:35 EST and isn’t a good pitching matchup for the Wahoos. Jeanmar Gomez (0-1, 6.23 ERA) makes his third start of the season and he will face the A’s stud lefty Brett Anderson (2-2, 2.95 ERA).

I said coming into this six-game trip that I would take 3-3. I still feel that way. Today is a big game considering the Tribe is going to be facing Dan Haren and Jered Weaver in Anaheim over the weekend.

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)