San Francisco Bay Area native Steven Kwan hit his first career home run in Oakland, Gabriel Arias collected two hits, two runs and two RBIs in his first start of the season and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Athletics 12-3 on Saturday afternoon.
Kwan, who was playing his eighth career game at the Oakland Coliseum, went 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs for the Guardians, who improved to 3-0.
Zack Gelof had a single, double and stolen base for the A’s.
Oakland took advantage of Guardians starter Tanner Bibee’s wildness to take a 3-2 lead in the third. The right-hander’s third walk in a four-batter stretch forced in Gelof to give the A’s the lead.
But Cleveland dominated from there, starting with a three-run fourth during which Arias had an RBI single, Austin Hedges hit a sacrifice fly and Kwan added a run-scoring single to put the Guardians up 5-3.
Cleveland tacked on five more runs in the next three innings, a stretch that included an RBI double by Hedges and a solo shot by Kwan, his first of the season.
A’s starter JP Sears (0-1) was charged with five runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out one.
Bibee allowed three runs and six hits in four innings. He walked five and struck out four.
Nick Sandlin (1-0), who pitched a hitless fifth with two strikeouts, was credited with the win. Sandlin, Cade Smith and Tyler Beede followed Bibee with five scoreless innings, allowing no hits and striking out 10.
The Guardians added two more runs in the ninth as Jose Ramirez and David Fry each hit RBI singles.
All nine Guardians batters had at least one hit in a 15-hit attack. Brayan Rocchio collected two doubles and scored twice, Andres Gimenez also scored a pair of runs, Fry had two RBIs and Ramirez chipped in with a pair of singles.
Kyle McCann, who walked in his first two major-league plate appearances, also scored a run for the A’s, who have been outscored 26-7 in the first three games of the series.
–Field Level Media