A's win fourth straight game
OAKLAND, Calif. - One day after celebrating the 10th anniversary of winning an American League-record 20 consecutive games, the Oakland Athletics extended their current winning streak.
Coco Crisp hit a three-run homer and had a career-high-tying five RBIs, and Jarrod Parker pitched eight shutout innings, giving up six hits, as the Athletics routed the Cleveland Indians 7-0 on Sunday afternoon.
"Hopefully we can continue the momentum that we have from the last three games, bring it into the next," Crisp said. "I think the teams that do a good job of focusing just on that instead of going into the big picture, the glory of making it to the playoffs and making it ride over the thought process of game to game can be a little difficult at times, but one game at a time. Tomorrow, come out, a fresh slate but hopefully some momentum can carry over for us."
Oakland has won four straight to move to a season-high-tying 10 games over .500 to stay a half game behind Baltimore for the second Wild Card spot.
"Given the (seven-)game win streak we had earlier this year we understand what it takes to win games and stay consistent and continue to stay the course," Athletics second baseman Jemile Weeks said. "That was obviously a really good thing to come out here and watch the team that won the 20 games straight and people just don't understand
how hard that is. We're not sure how they did it, but they did it so it was destiny, I guess."
Parker (8-7) tied his season high for innings pitched, and the rookie ended a personal three-game losing streak.
"I was able to throw a lot of two-seamers down in the zone, in and out and keep the ball in the infield, and I think that I've tried to do that all year and today it was pretty good for me," Parker said. "They were aggressive all day and I wanted to make some early contact and get ground balls and try to go as deep as I can in the game."
Cleveland's Justin Masterson (9-11) was shelled for seven runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.
"A bad pitch here or there and they make you pay," Masterson said. "Some ground balls here get through the holes and that's a part of it unfortunately. If we just play the game we're supposed to, have good at-bats and make good pitches, we should be able to win. And we have that talent to be able to do that. We've just been making a mistake
here, a mistake there and it's been putting us behind."
The Indians have struggled since the All-Star break, losing five straight and 26 of 36 games, falling to 11 1/2 games back in the American League Central.
"You have to stay positive and I know these guys are better than that," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "They're trying very hard and they need to relax and it's something that's been going on for a while. We have struggled in certain areas that are not conducive to winning games and it's showing."
Adding insult to injury in the ninth, Casey Kotchman hit a high pop up that fell between third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Cliff Pennington. Although Kotchman singled, he was thrown out on the play after wandering off first base.
The A's scored the first of their seven runs in the third inning. Pennington was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Weeks and scored on a single to right by Crisp.
Brandon Moss hit his 13th home run in the fourth.
The A's broke the game open in the fifth inning. Pennington and Weeks singled. With two runners on, Crisp homered to right field.
In the bottom of the sixth, after Pennington reached with one out on a fielder's choice, Weeks doubled him home. Crisp then collected his fifth RBI with a run-scoring single to center, making it a 7-0 cushion.
NOTES: Masterson has never won at the Oakland Coliseum falling to 0-4 with a 9.13 ERA (22.2 innings, 23 earned runs) in five games, four starts. ... The Indians were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-5 in the first two innings. ... Cleveland is 1-5 on its nine-game road trip. ... The Indians have also lost eight of their last nine day games since the All-Star break. ... The A's have hit 92 home runs in 66 games since June 4. ... Oakland is an American League-best 22-12 (.647) since the All-Star break.
