OAKLAND -- Terry Francona found himself in a situation that no manager wants to be in on Tuesday evening: He was concerned about the state of his bullpen.

"We're not in great shape today," Cleveland's skipper said prior to the Guardians' 4-3 loss to the A's at Oakland Coliseum.

As one of the few teams to open the 2023 campaign with games on seven consecutive days, the Guardians will have to wait until Thursday for their first off-day of the season. It can’t come soon enough for their taxed bullpen, which has shouldered a heavy load in the early days of the year.

That's why Shane Bieber's outing on Tuesday night proved crucial, even though he and the Guardians were left disappointed by the end result.

Entering the evening tilt, Cleveland's bullpen had tossed more innings (23 2/3) than its rotation (22 1/3) through the first five games of the season. Bieber did his best to buck that trend and give the Guardians some length, tossing six innings of three-run ball.

"Bieber was Bieber," Francona said. "I thought about letting him go back out. The way he was pitching, I didn't want to get him out there and have a baserunner, and then get him out of the game and not let him finish his own inning."

The 27-year-old righty may not have pitched exceptionally deep into the game, but his performance was a reprieve for a Guardians bullpen that had tossed nine innings in a wild 10-inning win the night before. Cleveland's ace was followed by Trevor Stephan, Enyel De Los Santos and James Karinchak, leaving Francona with a number of relatively fresh relievers available for the series finale.

Bieber walked away with a no-decision in his second straight quality start, but he said after the game that he was "not that happy" with his ability to work around traffic. In the third inning, much to his chagrin, Bieber walked leadoff batter Ryan Noda en route to allowing a pair of runs on two hits and a sacrifice fly.

"I found myself in a little bit of trouble, and just told myself, ‘Yeah, it's important to try and settle in and try to get through as many innings as we can,’" Bieber said. "Guys picked me up right away, and that was cool. It was a good game. Unfortunately [we] just ended up on the wrong side of things tonight."

The Guardians quickly erased the two-run deficit on the strength of Oscar Gonzalez's first career triple and Gabriel Arias' first home run of the season in the top of the fourth, then went ahead one inning later when José Ramírez doubled on a fly ball that caused A's second baseman Tony Kemp and center fielder Esteury Ruiz to collide in the outfield.

However, Bieber did not exit the game with the lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and Kemp on third, Bieber got A's left fielder Seth Brown to strike out swinging -- but that wasn't the end of it. The ball skipped between the legs of catcher Mike Zunino and rolled out of reach toward the A's dugout, allowing Kemp to score easily and Brown to reach first.

It could have been a crossup between Bieber and Zunino, who made their second regular-season start as a battery, but it was ultimately ruled a wild pitch.

"I think it kind of maybe took a weird hop off the plate as well," Bieber said. "It's gonna happen. I throw a lot of breaking pitches underneath the zone, in the dirt. And it was just one of those times where it caught a bad bounce, so it is what it is."

It was just the sort of mistake upon which the Guardians typically capitalize -- but this time, it did not go in their favor.

Unlike the night before, Cleveland was not able to make a second comeback, and Oakland walked it off on Kemp’s single in the ninth. The loss snapped the Guardians' streak of six straight wins at the Coliseum, which tied their record for consecutive road wins against the A's since their move to Oakland in 1968.

Cleveland's relentless approach may not have panned out Tuesday night, but that mentality isn't confined to individual games. The Guardians are already focused on getting back in the win column in Wednesday's rubber game.

"Like I said, it's just a game of baseball," Bieber said. "Sometimes you're on the right side of things, sometimes you're on the wrong. We've got to be able to turn the page as a team and move forward, and that's what we'll do."