Oakland Athletics vs Cleveland Indians Match Player Stats On Jul 06, 2018

Jose Ramirez and Edwin Encarnacion each drove in three runs and Carlos Carrasco struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings as the Cleveland Indians defeated the visiting Oakland Athletics 10-4 on Friday night.

The Indians won their eighth consecutive home game and have now won seven of their last eight games at Progressive Field against the A's.

Oakland's Dustin Fowler led off the game with a home run, his sixth, and Matt Olson added a home run to lead off the second inning, his 19th, but the A's squandered their early 2-0 lead. The A's lost for just the second time in their last 10 games.

Jason Kipnis had an RBI single in the second inning, then Ramirez's two-run double in the third gave the Indians the lead for good at 3-2. Encarnacion delivered the first of his two run-scoring sacrifice flies in the third to plate Ramirez.

Ramirez and Encarnacion each drove in runs in the Indians' four-run seventh inning that put the game away. Francisco Lindor reached base three times and stole home in the seventh inning on the back half of a double steal. The Indians stole four bases in the game.

Carrasco (9-5) gave up three runs on seven hits and did not walk a batter in his first start since he was hit on the right elbow by a line drive June 16 against the Minnesota Twins. He now sits at 999 career strikeouts.

Indians reliever Neil Ramirez came in with two on and two outs in the seventh, and immediately gave up a run-scoring double and a walk to lead the bases. But he struck out Khris Davis to end the threat and preserve a 6-4 lead. Ramirez threw six consecutive pitches out of the strike zone before throwing three consecutive strikes to put away Davis.

A's starter Paul Blackburn (2-3) gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits over four innings, with three strikeouts and one walk. It was the third time in six starts since coming off the disabled list because of a strained right forearm that Blackburn gave up at least six runs in an outing.

The A's now have 74 home runs on the road to lead baseball.

--Field Level Media