Athletics: 3  Indians: 0

The A’s began a 4-game series against the Cleveland Indians tonight and Brett Anderson took the mound for the second time since returning to the team from Tommy John surgery.

Anderson was as good as he was in his first start, only allowing two* hits and two walks while striking out five through seven innings.  He threw 95 pitches, 60 for strikes with most of his outs coming in the form of ground balls (11).

The A’s scored their three runs early, in the first inning they scored after Stephen Drew singled, Yoenis Cespedes doubled and Seth Smith hit a sacrifice fly to score Drew.  In the second Josh Reddick lead off the inning with his twenty-sixth home run of the season and put the A’s up 2-0.  They scored their final run in the third, this time Stephen Drew walked, Yoenis Cespedes doubled and Chris Carter singled to score Drew.

Cleveland pitcher, Roberto Hernandez (formerly known as Fausto Carmona), was removed from the game after only 2.1 innings due to an ankle injury and the A’s could not do a lot against their bullpen.  They combined for only three hits and one walk for the rest of the game, but thanks to their 12th shut out of the season, the three runs they scored early were enough to bring them to their 70th victory of the season.

Ryan Cook pitched a clean 8th, he did not allow a base runner and struck out two.  Grant Balfour pitched in the 9th, he walked one and struck out three, recording his fifteenth save of the season.

Lines of the Day:

• Brett Anderson: 7 IP, 2* H, 2 BB, 5 SO.  Anderson has now only allowed 6 hits, 1 run and 2 walks through his first two games (14 innings) and has struck out 11.
• Yoenis Cespedes: 4 AB, 2 H, 2 2B. After today’s game, Cespedes now has 19 doubles on the season.

A’s Extras: 

• Stephen Drew went 1-3 today with 1 walk.  He has now collected a hit in his last 5 games.
• Josh Reddick, who hit in the six spot again today, was 2-4 with a home run.
• Earlier today the A’s traded catcher Anthony Recker to the Chicago Cubs for catcher Blake Lalli.  Lalli, who is 29, has spent most of his playing time in Triple-A Iowa this season.  Over 324 plate appearances he has a .259/.293/.395 slash line and 7 HR with a .298 wOBA and a 71 wRC+.