Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the 6-3 loss to the A’s

The Cleveland Indians lost another heartbreaker as the bullpen costs Corey Kluber a win and costs the Indians the game.

Games like this make you appreciate how long the MLB season is. Sure, you want the Cleveland Indians to win every game you can but losses like these are ones you try not to hang on to. The Indians were up 3-0 before another bullpen implosion. This one was at the hands of Neil Ramirez, who had been pretty effective for the Tribe since joining them.

The game then went to extra-innings and the Indians bullpen turned to Josh Tomlin. You know how this story goes. The Indians five-game win streak is snapped and these teams will play a rubber match tomorrow. Here are the takeaways that certainly aren’t overreactions.

The offense was asleep for much of the day

It happens in baseball every now and then, the offense was unable to produce when it matters most. The Indians got nine hits on the day but only had three runs to show for it, one came on a sac play.

Michael Brantley had a chance to get two extra runs that would’ve been the difference. Unfortunately the wind knocked down a ball that was scorched 103 MPH off the bat of Brantley. It was caught at the wall like that scene in Major League 2. That was basically the story of the day as the Indians couldn’t muster much more offense after that.

Corey Kluber was back to his great ways

It wasn’t the usual dominant outing for Corey Kluber. Typically we’ll see him work deep into games with a ton of strikeouts. Today he worked seven innings but had only three strikeouts. He still only walked two and was pretty effective.

Kluber was in line for his 13th win as the Indians had a 3-0 lead with him on the mound. He managed to hold the A’s to five hits without allowing a run. It looked like Kluber was back to normal after some bad outings back in June hopefully he can continue his dominance. Now to the bad stuff.

Why is Josh Tomlin still in a Cleveland Indians uniform?

I’m chomping at the bits in my hope to look for a rational reason why Josh Tomlin is still a Cleveland Indian. He is a free agent after this year and there is no reason for the Indians to keep him around. 46-20

He will not make for a good trade target and is a liability for the Indians bullpen. Today his futile efforts were on full display today. He came in to pitch in the eleventh inning and after allowing a base hit he promptly allowed a home-run to Stephen Piscotty. Tomlin has now allowed 20 home runs in 46 innings and is practically dead weight for the Indians bullpen.

Next: This day in Indians history 7/7

It’s not all Tomlin’s fault but sometimes it feels like it. The rubber-match will be tomorrow at 1:10 PM EST as the young phenom Shane Bieber takes the mound.