The Oakland Athletics wrapped up the interleague series sweep of the San Francisco Giants in the second half of the 2011 Bay Bridge Series. The A's won Sunday's series finale thanks to a return to form for Trevor Cahill and some timely hitting. Although the A's offense still has some issues to work out, timely hitting was the difference this weekend as the A's did just enough to sweep the first place Giants.
Matt Cain and Trevor Cahill gave the fans an old school pitchers' duel as they each gave up a single run on limited damage. The two starters combined for 12 strikeouts and two runs on eights hits and a walk over 15 innings pitched. For the Giants, the performance was a solid bounce-back effort from Cain after his struggles against Arizona. For the A's, it was a big bounce-back for Cahill who had really struggled over the last month. The victory for Cahill was his first win since May 9 as he improved to 7-5.
Neither offense did a whole lot of much on Sunday, but as was the case all weekend, the A's did just enough. The Giants jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an Aaron Rowand RBI double down the left field line. Cain looked like he was going to make the lead hold up as he retired 14 straight at one point. However, the A's got a rally started in the sixth inning by who else but rookie Jemile Weeks. In twelve games with the A's since being called up, Weeks has proven to be a spark for the offense. The heart of the A's order has really struggled this season so they've developed a bit of an NL-style attack with speed and small ball. Today, Weeks hit a double to the gap, advanced to third on a groundout to second, and scored on a single by Coco Crisp to tie the game at 1.
The game looked like it might develop into a battle of the bullpens as neither side could break through again against either starter. Cain threw seven strong innings and Cahill went eight with a career-high 118 pitches. However, Landon Powell quickly changed that in the bottom of the eighth as he hit a solo home run to left-center off Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt to give the A's a 2-1 lead. Brian Fuentes was brought on to close out the game as Andrew Bailey was unavailable due to three appearances in the previous four games. Fuentes has struggled at times but he got the 1-2-3 ninth to secure the series sweep.
The A's will take their season high five game winning streak on the road for six games at the Mets and Phillies as interleague play continues. The Giants will host the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians for six games of interleague action. Both teams are back in action on Tuesday.
To look back at the second half of the 2011 Bay Bridge Series, make sure and check out our story stream.