Slade Cecconi throws seven stellar innings as Guardians blank A's, wrap of West Coast trip with second series win

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Guardians didn't score more than four runs in any of the nine games on their West Coast road trip that ended Sunday. Somehow they still managed to win four games and two series. Thank the pitching staff for that. Sunday was Slade Cecconi's turn to do the honors and he did them magnificently, pitching a career-high seven innings in a 3-0 win over the Oakland Athletics. Cecconi (3-3) allowed six hits while walking one and striking out three in his seventh start for Cleveland after making 17 for Arizona over the previous two seasons. His performance came on the heels of a six-inning gem by Luis Ortiz in a 4-2 win Saturday and after Tanner Bibee went eight innings in a 5-1 loss Friday. Guardians starting pitchers went at least five innings in the last eight games of the trip. "Our starting pitching has been getting better all year," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "Our pitching group does a great job of supporting the guys and just continuing to help them get better day in and day out and our players are super-talented and buy into it. I think the sky's the limit for this group of starters." Cecconi had a 5.28 ERA after three May starts but he's allowed just five runs in four June starts covering 22 innings for a 2.05 ERA. Sunday he showed just how effective he can be when all of his pitches are working. "Everything really felt good today," he said. "There wasn't one pitch that was the difference maker. The sinker definitely was probably pitch 1A, but we had a good mix of everything going. We used the curveball when we needed to, established strikes with the four-seam, got our groundballs with the sinker, and used the slider and changeup when necessary." He found it necessary to use the sinker in the seventh inning when he got Willie MacIver to ground into an inning-ending double play. He couldn't resist celebrating the play with a fist pump. "Fired up," he said when asked how he felt in that moment. "Let it show a little bit. I was pretty pumped. We had been really working the sinker all day." "It's having all those pitches and being able to execute them," catcher Austin Hedges said. "If he's got all of them working, I think that's why you saw so many quick innings. It's not necessarily going to be the punchies, but it's going to be lots of weak contact, inefficiency, and it's going to allow him to go deep into games. Those are a lot of games we can win." The Guardians grabbed a 2-0 lead against A's starter JP Sears (5-7) in the second. Angel Martínez walked, stole second and scored on a single by Gabriel Arias. Nolan Jones doubled in Arias. Steven Kwan singled and scored on David Fry's two-out single in the fifth for the final run. "Huge hit for Fry," Vogt said. "That third run is huge. They have to get two on to tie you up." Sears allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings. He is 1-5 in his last eight starts. Jack Perkins made his big league debut in the seventh for the A's and pitched three scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and struck out two. Things got a little dicey for the Guardians in the ninth inning when Emmanuel Clase gave up a walk and singles to Tyler Soderstrom and JJ Bleday to load the bases. But he escaped unscathed, striking out pinch hitter Max Muncy on three pitches and retiring Lawrence Butler on a groundout for his second straight save and 18th in 21 opportunities. "He's the best closer in the world," Vogt said. "It's not close. Even when his back's against the wall he gets better. You never get worried when he's out there on the mound. He finds a way to get out of it." Cleveland (39-37) finished 4-5 on the trip. They opened by being swept by the Mariners then took two of three from both the Giants and A's. "Obviously we would have liked to have played better in Seattle and taken one of those," Vogt said. "But you come on a West Coast trip playing against these three teams and you come out of it with two series W's, that's a successful trip." UP NEXT The Guardians will start left-hander Logan Allen (5-4, 4.21 ERA) on Tuesday against the visiting Blue Jays, who will start left-hander and Midview grad Eric Lauer (3-1, 2.29), . The Athletics will start right-hander Luis Severino (2-7, 4.42 ERA) on Tuesday in Detroit against lefty Tarik Skubal (8-2, 2.06), the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.