Oakland, CA – Bartolo Colon tossed eight innings of one-run ball against his former club and Yoenis Cespedes smacked a two-run homer and drove in three runs as the Oakland Athletics downed the Cleveland Indians, 8-5, in the middle installment of a three-game set.
Colon (10-9) surrendered a run on five hits and fanned three for the A's, who have won three straight games. The 39-year-old became the third pitcher in Oakland history two win 10 games at age 36 or older. Don Sutton had 13 wins in 1985 at age 40 and Tom Candiotti tallied 11 victories in 1998 at age 40.
"That is an accomplishment, it doesn't surprise me," A's manager Bob Melvin said of Colon's feat. "He enjoys what he's doing at this point in his career."
Grant Balfour picked up the final out to notch his 11th save of the year.
Corey Kluber (0-2) allowed four unearned runs on four hits and three walks in five innings for the Cleveland, which has dropped its last four contests.
The A's opened the scoring following a four-run third and pushed across another in the sixth.
Cliff Pennington reached base on Asdrubal Cabrera's error at shortstop to begin the third frame and Jemile Weeks moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt. After Coco Crisp walked, a double steal put Crisp and Pennington at second and third, respectively.
Pennington scored on Josh Donaldson's RBI groundout and Josh Reddick ripped a double to left field, which plated Crisp. Cespedes then smacked a two-run shot to left field for a 4-0 A's lead.
George Kottaras bounced an RBI single through the hole on the left side in the sixth to make it 5-0.
Carlos Santana got Cleveland on the board in the seventh with a solo shot to center field, but Oakland got the run back in the home half when Cespedes poked a run-scoring single through the hole on the left side, which gave Oakland a 6-1 advantage.
Crisp lined a two-out, two-run triple in the eighth before the Indians made things a bit interesting with a four-run ninth when Oakland had to use three different pitchers to finally seal the win.
Shin-Soo Choo cracked a two-run blast off of Evan Scribner and Brent Lillibridge belted a two-run shot off Jerry Blevins before Balfour cleaned up the mess by striking out Ezequiel Carrera to end the game.
Game Notes
The Athletics celebrated the 10th anniversary of their American League record 20-game winning streak with a pregame ceremony ... The A's were 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
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