Guardians can't finish off sweep, get hammered by Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Colby Thomas, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom homered to back a strong start by Aaron Civale as the Athletics beat the Guardians 7-1 Sunday to avoid a series sweep. Thomas hit his first home run of the season, leading off the second against rookie Parker Messick (3-1) for a 1-0 lead. Rookie Chase DeLauter hit his sixth home run — and first since April 3 — going the opposite way to left field to tie it 1-all in the fifth and extend his hitting streak to eight games. DeLauter went 8-for-11 in the series. Messick retired nine in a row following Thomas' shot until Gelof and Soderstrom hit back-to-back homers leading off the Athletics fifth. It was the second homer for Gelof and the fourth for Soderstrom, who went 3-for-4. Singles by Darell Hernaiz, Jeff McNeil and Brent Rooker produced another run for a 4-1 lead before Messick struck out Nick Kurtz to end the inning. McNeil had his third straight multiple-hit game when he drove in three with a two-out double off Peyton Pallette, who needed 36 pitches to retire the side in the seventh. Civale (3-1) yielded a run on seven hits and two walks in six innings. He retired Daniel Schneemann to end the first and third innings with runners at the corners. Justin Sterner, Mark Leiter Jr. and Joel Kuhnel all pitched a scoreless inning for the A's. Messick allowed four runs on six hits in five innings. The left-hander had allowed one homer and 22 hits through his first 36 innings this season. Kurtz went 1-for-4 to extend the longest current on-base streak at 28. Saturday: Guardians 14, Athletics 6 José Ramírez stole his 300th career base and David Fry and Kyle Manzardo both hit home runs as the Cleveland Guardians used a four-run fifth inning to rally past the Athletics. Ramírez hit a two-run double in the fifth that gave the Guardians their first lead at 4-3 before he stole third base. He became the second player in franchise history with 300 or more stolen bases, joining Kenny Lofton. Ramírez also joined Starling Marte, Jose Altuve and Trea Turner as the only active players to reach the mark. Shea Langeliers hit two homers for the Athletics, a two-run shot in the first and a solo blast in the fifth. Kurtz was 2-for-5, but had his streak of games with a walk end at 20, tied for the second longest in MLB history. After Rhys Hopkins scored Ramírez on a sacrifice fly to put the Guardians up 5-3 in the fifth, Fry added his second homer of the season in the sixth. Rookie Travis Bazzana got his first major league hit and RBI on a two-run single in the seventh and immediately stole his first base. Manzardo added insurance in the top of the eighth with a three-run homer. Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan had RBIs in the ninth to cap Cleveland's win. Austin Hedges hit his first homer of the season in the third for the Guardians. Slade Cecconi (1-4) earned the win despite allowing five runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. Jacob Lopez (2-2) gave up six runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Athletics. The win was the highest-scoring game for Cleveland since it also scored 14 runs on June 28, 2023, against Kansas City.