Toronto, ON (Sports Network) – Conor Jackson drove in three runs while Hideki Matsui had four hits and two RBI, helping the Oakland Athletics take a 10-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the rubber match of this three-game series. Guillermo Moscoso (5-6) tossed six strong innings, allowing two runs — one earned — on three hits and two walks while striking out six in Oakland’s fourth win in five games.
“I did a pretty good job and the guys did a pretty good job as well. They hit the ball well and gave me some support,” Moscoso said. “I tried to take advantage of it by getting ahead in the counts and getting quick outs.”
Toronto’s Brad Mills (1-2) allowed six runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batter in just three innings. It was the third start of the year for the left- hander, who was called up July 30. J.P. Arencibia had a solo home run as the Jays lost for the fifth time in eight games.
Oakland jumped all over Mills in the third inning, scoring six runs before recording an out. After Adam Rosales walked to lead off the third, Scott Sizemore hit a double down the third-base line to put runners on second and third. Cliff Pennington followed with a two-run double off the base of the wall in left-center. Matsui then singled on a soft line drive into center to bring home Pennington. Josh Willingham was hit by a pitch before Jackson hammered a triple high off the left-field wall, scoring Matsui and Willingham. Jackson then crossed the plate on a wild pitch to give the A’s a 6-0 lead. Mills finally settled in to get the next three batters out, but he would not return to the mound for the fourth.
“It was a combination of bad pitches and bad breaks. Obviously, I didn’t make a lot of good [pitches] that inning,” Mills said about the third inning.
Yunel Escobar led off the fourth inning with a walk to be the Blue Jays first base runner of the game. Jose Bautista was given a free pass two batters later. Adam Lind followed with a grounder to short that should have been an easy double play, but Pennington’s throw was wide of second, allowing Escobar to score and moving Bautista to third. Edwin Encarnacion then legged out an infield single to bring Bautista across the plate and make it a 6-2 game.
But Oakland got those runs back, plus more, off of Luis Perez in the sixth. Matsui had an RBI single and Jackson added a sacrifice fly before Perez’s throwing error on a dribbler by Ryan Sweeney with the bases loaded scored two more, making the score 10-2.
J.P. Arencibia’s solo shot with one out in the seventh off of Fautino De Los Santos finalized the scoring. Toronto only managed to put runners in scoring position in the fourth, sixth and ninth innings, going 1-for-8 in those situations and leaving six men on base.
Oakland Athletics center fielder Coco Crisp, who hasn’t played since Saturday, sat out another game with a sore right calf…Encarnacion extended his hit streak to a season-high 10 games…Oakland wrapped up its nine-game, 11-day road trip with a record of 4-5…Moscoso improved to 2-5 in eight road appearances — seven starts…Oakland has now committed 20 errors in 25 games since the All-Star break…Oakland went 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base.