Recap: Flat Play, Flat Loss. A’s Fall 1-0 to Tribe.

For my money, this was the most frustrating loss of the year. Tommy Milone threw a gem of a game, allowing only 5 hits and striking out 5 over his 7 innings. Twice he stranded leadoff doubles, and also survived a blown call by the 2B umpire on an obvious tag from Eric Sogard in the Cleveland half of the 5th with two outs. The only run he did allow was on a double error by Brandon Moss and Eric Sogard. Moss, again ranging too far to his left, booted the ball towards Sogard, who made a poor decision to throw and a bad throw behind Milone, who attempted to get back and cover the bag. A Yan Gomes sacrifice fly to deep CF scored that only run.

That was really the game. Zach McAllister was good but not great -- at least, he was no Matt Harvey. Over 7.2 innings, he walked one, K'ed 4, and allowed 5 hits. Of those hits and walks, only two came with less than two outs and none were extra base hits. That means the A's score no runs. Chris Perez came in to close the game out, in the process allowing an at ‘em lineout to Jed Lowrie, and a Yoenis Cespedes single but nothing else. A bullet of a throw from Yan Gomes and an effective pitchout from Perez erased Cespedes on a steal attempt. Brandon Moss struck out to the end the game. Blah.

And that's all she wrote, folks. The A's will attempt to salvage the series tomorrow, as A.J. Griffin will pitch to right the ship.

Oh, and Go Sharks!