The Oakland Athletics wrapped up their four-game set on with the Detroit Tigers, salvaging a split thanks to a 5-1 victory on Sunday. Trevor Cahill got his second win of the season and continued his pattern through four starts of alternating good and bad starts. Cahill went eight innings, giving up one run on four hits. His nine strikeouts was one short of tying his career high.
The A’s received a strong balanced effort from their offense today as four different players drove in runs. Brad Penny was dominant early, retiring nine of the first ten batters he faced. However, the A’s got the first run of the game in the fourth on a Hideki Matsui groundout. The A’s had men on first and third and Matsui hit a dribbler down the line with one out. It was clearly going to roll foul but Penny grabbed it to get Matsui out. This allowed Barton to score and give the A’s a 1-0 lead.
The A’s added three more runs in the fifth inning as Connor Jackson drew a bases loaded walk to score one run, followed by a Josh Willingham single to score two more. The A’s added a fifth run in the sixth inning on a Cliff Pennington sacrifice fly. That was more than enough as Cahill was dealing and Tyson Ross wrapped things up in the ninth with two strike outs and a flyout.
The victory ensured a split with the Tigers and got the A’s back to .500 at 8-8. The A’s close out this short homestand with two games against the Boston Red Sox starting Tuesday. Brett Anderson will square off with John Lackey at 7:05pm pacific on CSN Plus.