The Oakland Athletics dropped an 8-3 decision to the Detroit Tigers Tuesday night as Guillermo Moscoso was unable to recapture his pre-All Star break dominance. Moscoso kept things close through four innings and actually held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. However, he struggled mightily with location as a Miguel Cabrera two-run home run gave the Tigers a lead on they would not surrender.
Moscoso and Tigers starter Rick Porcello were able to work their around some jams early on. After the two teams exchanged zeros through the first three innings, the A’s were able to load the bases on Porcello with nobody out in the top of the fourth. Unfortunately the A’s could not convert any runs from the situation. David DeJesus grounded into a fielder’s choice at first in which Coco Crisp was forced out at home. That was followed by Conor Jackson hitting into an inning ending 5-4-3 double play.
The Tigers grabbed a run in the bottom of the fourth following a Conor Jackson error that allowed Victor Martinez to score from first. Martinez slid around A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki to score the run. The A’s bounced back in the fifth with three runs thanks to three straight two-out hits. Kurt Suzuki led off the inning with a double before Cliff Pennington grounded out and Jemile Weeks flew out. Ryan Sweeney then singled to score Suzuki, followed by a Coco Crisp double put men on second and third, and concluded by a Hideki Matsui single scored Sweeney and Crisp.
Moscoso got the first out in the bottom of the fifth, but then ran into trouble as he put men on second and third after an Austin Jackson single and Brennan Boesch double. Magglio Ordonez sacrified in one run to cut the lead to 3-2, bringing up Miguel Cabrera. Although Moscoso was able to get two strikes on Cabrera, his location was off as he was missing down and away. Cabrera was just missing on pitches and it looked like Moscoso might escape the Tigers MVP candidate. However, he went to the well once too often and Cabrera made him pay with a two-run home run.
The inning quickly fell apart from there as Jhonny Peralta later hit an RBI single and Carlos Guillen added a two-run home run. By the time Moscoso left he had given up seven runs, six of them earned, on nine pitches and one walk over 4 2/3 innings.
Given the A’s general offensive struggles their chances of a comeback were slim. They managed four singles (two of which were infield singles) and not much else, falling quietly 8-3.
The teams wrap up the brief two-game series with a 4:05pm start time on Wednesday. The game will be broadcast on CSN California and features Brandon McCarthy vs. Jacob Turner.