A’s power their way past Cleveland

CLEVELAND — The Indians spent nearly all of Monday night trying to play catch-up. In the end, they inched their way to within striking distance but fell short nonetheless in a 6-4 loss to the Oakland A’s at Progressive Field.

The A’s beat up Carlos Carrasco’s slider early on. Carrasco (44) was getting enough sings-andmisses with that pitch, but it was also taken deep for a home run twice in the first three innings.

Jurickson Profar in the second inning drove a slider below the zone for a solo shot to right. An inning later, Matt Olson took a slider on the outside part of the plate and hit it to the seats in right field, putting the A’s up 2-0.

That lead was increased to 3-0 in the fourth. Robbie Grossman opened the inning with a double to left field and scored on Josh Phegley’s single to left. Carrasco finished his night with three earned runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings.

Oscar Mercado continued his torrid week, singling in Jose Ramirez — who doubled to lead off the inning — in the fifth to cut the deficit to 3-1. They nearly came away with a bigger inning, as Francisco Lindor with two outs and two runners on lined a ball to the left side, but shortstop Marcus Semien made a diving play to end the inning.

The Indians (25-21), unsuccessfully trying to erase that lead, and A’s traded runs in the seventh. Matt Chapman, with Semien on third, singled up the

middle off Dan Otero to make it 4-1. Indians catcher Roberto Perez answered by leading off the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to right field, his sixth of the season.

They inched closer in the eighth. Back-to-back walks opened the door for Ramirez, who with one out signaled to right field to score Jason Kipnis — who extended his on-base streak to 15 games — and pull the Indians to within one run, 4-3.

After Roberto Perez drew a walk as well to load the bases, the A’s called on closer Blake Treinen with two outs. It set up the biggest matchup of the night against Carlos Gonzalez, one that Treinen ultimately won by inducing a routine ground ball to Semien.

Chapman finally delivered the knockout blow in the top of the ninth. Facing Tyler Clippard with a runner on, Chapman drilled a two-run home run that just cleared the 19-foot wall in left field. After coming close in the eighth to erasing the deficit, the Indians suddenly found themselves trailing 6-3 and lacked the counterpunch in the bottom half of the inning.