Athletics: 8 Indians: 4
Well, it wasn’t a shutout, but it was another win.
Cleveland struck first tonight, ending their 30 inning scoreless streak against the A’s. Jason Donald lead off the third with a home run and the following batter, Ezequiel Carrera, tripled and scored on an RBI ground out. Those would be the only two runs allowed by Travis Blackley.
The A’s immediately took the lead in the fourth, when Josh Donaldson hit a 3-run home run scoring Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Carter and himself. They scored again in the sixth inning on an RBI ground out by Derek Norris. They scored two more in the seventh, after Coco Crisp lead off the inning with a double, Stephen Drew and Yoenis Cespedes both struck out swinging, but Seth Smith came through with a double, which scored Crisp. Chris Carter would follow up with a single, scoring Smith and Josh Donaldson struck out to end the inning.
The Indians would scored two more runs of their own against Sean Doolittle, both unearned, in the eighth. Doolittle walked Shin-Soo Choo to lead off the inning, then allowed a single to Lou Marson and a fielding error by Josh Donaldson would load the bases. Brent Lillibridge hit a sacrifice fly to score Choo and Jerry Blevins came in to replace Doolittle. Blevins got Casey Kotchman to ground out, but Marson scored on the play. Ryan Cook then came in to replace Blevins and got Jason Donald to ground out to end the inning.
The A’s scored two more in the ninth inning after Stephen Drew lead off the inning with a double and Yoenis Cespedes singled him in. After Seth Smith grounded out and Chris Carter hit a pop up, Josh Reddick doubled and scored Cespedes. The inning ended with Josh Donaldson striking out.
Ryan Cook would finish the game and record his 13th save of the season, he allowed a lead off double to Ezequiel Carrera and then struck out Jason Kipnis and Jack Hannahan and got Shin-Soo Choo to ground out to end the game.
Lines of the Day:
- Josh Donaldson: 5 AB, 2 H, 3 RBI. Donaldson had the biggest hit tonight for the A’s, giving the A’s the lead in the fourth. He has been quite the productive hitter since his return to Oakland hitting .351/.403/.561 since his call up.
- Josh Reddick: 5 AB, 3 H, 1 RBI, 1 2B. Reddick was back in the six spot tonight and although it’s a small sample size, he seems to be comfortable hitting in this spot.
A’s Extras:
- Yoenis Cespedes also had a good night, going 3-5 with a double and 1 RBI.
- Travis Blackley pitched 5.2 innings tonight, he allowed 3 hits, 2 runs, walked 2 and struck out 5. This will most likely be his last start for now as AJ Griffin and Dan Straily will both be available to pitch for Oakland on Monday.
- The A’s combined for fifteen hits today and the only player to not collect a hit was Cliff Pennington, who went 0-4 with a strikeout.
- Graham Godfrey cleared waivers earlier today and was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento.
