Athletics’ Manaea halts Tribe’s offensive roll
CLEVELAND — Indians manager Terry Francona has often said that momentum in baseball lasts only as far as the next day’s opposing pitcher.
For the Indians, who had begun to roll offensively, consider that momentum halted.
The Indians managed just three hits against Oakland Athletics starter Sean Manaea and lost 3-1 Wednesday night at Progressive Field.
The left-handed Manaea (4-3) pitched seven innings and struck out nine. The Indians’ lone bright spot came from Francisco Lindor, who homered in the fourth inning to tie it at 1.
It was Lindor’s teamleading 12th home run and increased the Indians' streak of games with homers to 16, their longest such stretch since a 17-game streak that carried from 2001 to 2002.
But it wasn’t enough against Manaea.
“He was moving the ball. He was locating. And his delivery was a little (funky),” Lindor said. “He can get you off your timing. He had a plan and he executed.”
On offense, A’s shortstop Chad Pinder essentially beat the Indians single-handedly. Indians starter Mike Clevinger (2-2) turned in a quality outing, allowing three runs on five hits and striking out seven in 6 innings. But he couldn’t fool Pinder, who homered twice and drove in all three of the A’s runs with the first multi-home run game of his career.
Both home runs came on hanging breaking balls — one a slider and the other a curveball.
“He left two breaking balls (over the plate) to Pinder that got hit. Other than that, he was really good,” Francona said. “I think if he gets 6 (innings) and three (runs), most nights we’re talking about how well he did.”