'Didn't do enough': A's drop finale to Tribe

OAKLAND -- Given the recent state of the A’s offense, the margin for error has slimmed considerably for the starting rotation.

An A’s offense performing up to its full capabilities should be able to disguise Chris Bassitt's few flaws in an otherwise quality outing turned in on Sunday afternoon. Instead, a couple of hiccups were magnified in a 4-2 loss to the Indians at the Coliseum.

For Bassitt, the loss snapped a 10-game winning streak that dated back to April 12, which stands tied for fourth longest by a starter in Oakland history. For the A’s, a rough stretch entering the All-Star break has picked up as they’ve now dropped 15 of their last 24 games.

“He had the same type of stuff that he has all year for us,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Bassitt. “First pitch of the game was a homer and then the last homer was probably the only other mistake he made. We just didn’t do enough offensively.”

Fresh off appearing in the first All-Star Game of his career on Tuesday night in Denver, Bassitt kicked off his second half by performing in similar fashion to his first half that saw him end as one of the league’s top pitchers. Shaking off a homer surrendered to Bradley Zimmer on the first pitch of the game, the right-hander settled in and retired 18 of his final 21 batters faced.

Ultimately, there was one pitch Bassitt would have liked to get back. It came in the seventh, when on a 3-2 count with two outs in a tie game, he floated a changeup over the heart of the zone that was crushed by Cleveland right fielder Daniel Johnson for a go-ahead solo blast.

Asked of the homer allowed to Johnson, Bassitt said he mixed up scouting reports during the at-bat, thinking he was instead facing Indians first baseman Bobby Bradley.

“I had a complete mental [screw] up,” Bassitt said. “I knew Bradley wasn’t hitting, but the scouting report in my head was Bradley hitting. So I was pitching to Bradley, but he obviously wasn’t hitting. I just messed the game up because I had the wrong scouting report in my head.”

Still, Bassitt finished the seventh and left his club well within striking distance, logging seven innings with eight strikeouts and three runs allowed on six hits. His tough-luck loss continued what has been a trend of low run support for A’s starters, which was also present in Saturday’s loss after a solid outing produced by Frankie Montas.

The A’s totaled just four hits on Sunday and went hitless after Seth Brown’s game-tying solo homer off Cleveland starter Zach Plesac in the fifth.

Returning from the All-Star break, Melvin was eager to see what improvements his lineup can show now that a healthy Mitch Moreland and Mark Canha have been reinstated from the injured list over the past few days. But so far, the offensive struggles continue. The A’s are batting .208 with 64 runs over their last 18 games, an average of 3.6 runs per game over that stretch.

“We feel like we’re healthier and have a deeper lineup, we just haven’t seen the results yet,” Melvin said. “I feel good about it every day we go out there. They get in good work in the batting cage. We’re just in a little bit of a rut right now. But every day we go out there, I feel like we’re going to break out of it.”

The challenge on offense won’t get any easier. Oakland will welcome the Angels to the Coliseum for a quick two-game set, starting with two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani taking the mound for Los Angeles in Monday’s series opener.

"We just want to put consistent at-bats together throughout the lineup,” Melvin said. “It’s tough to string a bunch of hits together against [Ohtani], but we just have to be patient and, hopefully, make him throw a lot of pitches early in the game.”