Athletics:  4  Dodgers:  1

This game was actually pretty uneventful until the 9th inning.  Both starting pitchers were impressive, Travis Blackley held the Dodgers to 1 run over 8 innings, while Clayton Kershaw did the same to the A’s.  Each pitcher only allowed 3 hits, Kershaw struck out 7 A’s players, Blackley struck out 6 Dodgers.

Josh Lindblom came in to replace Clayton Kershaw in the bottom of the ninth, Coco Crisp walked to lead off the inning and moved over to 2nd on a wild pitch.  Jemile Weeks then tried to sacrifice him over to 3rd, but reached first on a bunt single.  With players on 1st and 3rd Yoenis Cespedes came in and hit an 0-1 pitch for a line drive home run to left field to win the game for the A’s.

The A’s managed to hold the Dodgers to 11 hits and 2 runs over the 3-game series.  The A’s didn’t score a ton in the series, but outscored the Dodgers 11-2.

Lines of the Day:

• Travis Blackley:  8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 6 SO.  It took Blackley only 87 pitches to get through 8 innings and 67 were for strikes.  It was his longest outing of the season and the first time he did not issue a walk over his first 5 starts.
• Yoenis Cespedes:  4 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 3 RBI.  Cespedes only had 1 hit today, but his 1 hit won the game for the A’s.  It was his 7th home run of the season and now has a .279/.338/.507 slash line and .845 OPS.

A’s Extras:

• Derek Norris made his MLB debut today for Oakland (Josh Donaldson was optioned down to Triple-A to make room for him).  He went 0-3 with a double play, but threw out Dee Gordon trying to steal 2nd in the 9th.  According to Bob Melvin, Norris will not be a backup to Kurt Suzuki, he plans on splitting playing time between the two catchers.
• Jordan Norberto was activated from the DL today, Pedro Figueroa was optioned to Sacramento to make room for the left-hander.
• Ryan Cook was credited with the win today, he allowed 1 walk and struck out 1 over 1 clean inning of work.

For more on the Los Angeles Dodgers, vist Foul Territory.