Field Level Media
Aug 12, 2021
Chris Bassitt threw six strong innings to remain undefeated on the road while Mitch Moreland homered twice and Starling Marte and Mark Canha each had three RBIs as the visiting Oakland Athletics won their seventh straight, 17-0, to complete a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Thursday.
The All-Star Bassitt (12-3) yielded the only three hits Cleveland could muster and walked two while striking out six to improve to 8-0 away from home in 2021. Marte stayed hot with two more hits while Matt Olson, Sean Murphy, Elvis Andrus and Stephen Piscotty each had two RBIs for the A's, who scored their most runs since a 21-7 victory at Houston on Sept. 10, 2019 to win for the 11th time in 13 contests.
Cleveland's Eli Morgan (1-5) was tagged for five runs while giving up three hits, walking three and hitting two batters over four innings. The Indians, whose pitchers issued 10 walks to conclude a 3-4 homestand and allowed their most runs at home since a 17-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on June 17, 2015, have dropped seven of 10 overall.
The A's opened the scoring in the second on Murphy's two-run double into the left-center field gap. They went up 3-0 when Morgan hit Marte with the bases loaded.
Morgan found trouble again in the fourth when he issued a free pass to Matt Chapman, who became the first Athletic to walk five times in a game since Mark McGwire on April 26, 1997, and served up a single to Andrus. Chapman scored on Canha's groundout and Marte, batting .415 in 12 games with Oakland, delivered a run-scoring double.
Cleveland's Justin Garza yielded Moreland's first homer to open the fifth, then walked the next three batters before exiting without recording an out. Francisco Perez made his major league debut by walking Andrus with the bases loaded to give Oakland a 7-0 lead. Marte delivered again with a two-out RBI single.
Olson's two-run single capped the five-run fifth for Oakland. A Seth Brown sacrifice fly and Andrus RBI groundout in the sixth made it a 12-0 game before the A's added four runs in the eighth and Moreland knocked out his second homer in the ninth.
--Field Level Media