Colby Thomas, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom homered to back a strong start by Aaron Civale and the Athletics beat the Cleveland Guardian 7-1 on Sunday to avoid a series sweep.
Thomas hit his first home run of the season, leading off the second against rookie Parker Messick (3-1) for a 1-0 lead.
Rookie Chase DeLauter hit his sixth home run — and first since April 3 — going the opposite way to left field to tie it 1-all in the fifth and extend his hitting streak to eight games. DeLauter went 8 for 11 in the series.
Messick retired nine in a row following Thomas’ shot until Gelof and Soderstrom hit back-to-back homers leading off the Athletics fifth. It was the second homer for Gelof and the fourth for Soderstrom, who went 3 for 4. Singles by Darell Hernaiz, Jeff McNeil and Brent Rooker produced another run for a 4-1 lead before Messick struck out Nick Kurtz to end the inning.
Travis Bazzana had two hits for Cleveland.
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