Anaheim, CA – Brandon Moss and Yoenis Cespedes each clubbed home runs to back a solid outing from Dan Straily on Tuesday, as the Oakland Athletics held off the Los Angeles of Anaheim, 4-3, in the second installment of a four-game set.
Straily (2-0) surrendered three runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts over 6 2/3 frames to earn his second big league victory.
Moss launched a two-run blast, while Cespedes added a solo shot for the A's, who have won 11 straight road games for the first time since April 9-26, 1981.
Oakland kept pace with Texas, which also won on Tuesday, and remained three games back in the AL West.
Jerome Williams (6-8) was tagged with the loss after giving up four runs on five hits over 3 1/3 frames.
Vernon Wells and Torii Hunter each went deep for the Angels, who have dropped two straight on the heels of a six-game winning streak to fall 7 1/2 games behind Texas and 2 1/2 games back of the final AL wild card spot.
After the Angels failed to score with runners on the corners and no outs in the first, Cespedes crushed the second pitch of the second inning into center field to provide the A's with a 1-0 advantage.
The Angels responded quickly in the bottom half as Erick Aybar smacked a leadoff single and Wells followed with a blast over the left-field wall to give the Halos a 2-1 edge.
Oakland jumped back in front in the fourth when Cespedes ripped a one-out single before Moss launched a towering shot into right-center field.
Josh Donaldson then singled and moved to third on a base hit from George Kottaras before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Stephen Drew for a 4-2 lead.
Hunter launched a two-out, solo homer in the seventh to chase Straily from the game. Pat Neshek entered and allowed Albert Pujols to reach on a Drew error, but Sean Doolittle finished off the frame by grounding out Kendrys Morales.
Oakland tacked on some insurance in the ninth, as Cliff Pennington smacked a two-out base hit and Coco Crisp followed with a triple into the right-field corner. Hunter had trouble fielding the ball as it bounced around in the corner, allowing Crisp to score for a 6-3 edge.
Grant Balfour walked back-to-back hitters to start the ninth before Hunter plated a run with a single back up the middle. Pujols followed with a base hit to left field to score Mike Trout and put runners on the corners with no outs.
Jerry Blevins entered and fanned Morales before getting Howie Kendrick to ground into a game-ending double play for his first save of the season.
Game Notes
Oakland has won five straight overall ... Williams has now lost six straight decisions ... The A's have homered in 16 of their last 17 games ... LA went 2- for-10 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base ... Aybar now has an 11-game hitting streak.
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