The Oakland A’s are battling to keep themselves in the tight AL West race, and flexed a little muscle this evening in doing so. Josh Willingham hit a late inning bomb, Gio Gonzalez kept Oakland in the game, and the A’s took out the O’s by a score of 6-2 at the Coliseum.
The game was tied 2-2 heading into the sixth when the A’s pulled ahead with a two RBI Ryan Sweeney single, and a pair of RBI hits from Josh Willingham and Kurt Suzuki to make the game 5-2. Willngham’s homer, his eighth of the season, only padded the A’s victory.
Gio Gonzalez lasted for only five innings tonight, allowing two runs on five hits, with an uncharacteristic five walks and seven strikeouts. Joey Devine and Brad Zeigler (W 1-0) relieved Gonzalez nicely, keeping the Orioles to only one hit in three innings of combined work, while Michael Wuertz finished them off in the ninth.
With the win the A’s move to 25-27 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
The second game of the series is Saturday night, with first pitch set for 7:05 PT. Josh Outman (0-0 1.29 ERA) will be on the mound for the A’s to take on Brad Bergesen (1-5 5.64 ERA) for the O’s.