The Oakland Athletics completed a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians with a 12-7 win on Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field. It was the sixth straight win for the Wild Card-leading A's.
For the second straight day, the Indians got on the board first, but an early lead didn't hold up. Jason Kipnis homered to lead off the bottom of the first inning, but Coco Crisp evened things up in the top of the third with a solo shot of his own.
The A's had little trouble piling on runs after that. George Kottaras hit a bases-clearing double in the top of the fourth to make it 4-1 and Cliff Pennington stretched that lead to 6-1 with a home run. Jack Hannahan got one of those runs back for the Indians in the bottom of the fourth, but Josh Reddick launched another two-run shot in the top of the fifth that made the score 8-2 in favor of the Athletics. The bomb was the 27th homer of the year for Reddick.
In the bottom of the fifth, Shin-Soo Choo helped out with an RBI groundout to scratch out another run for Cleveland. The A's again answered right back in the top of the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Stephen Drew and an RBI single from Reddick that made it 10-3.
The Indians grabbed three quick runs in the bottom of the sixth with a bases-loaded walk to Kipnis and a two-run single from Choo, cutting the Oakland lead to 10-6. Chris Carter padded the lead a bit in the seventh with a sacrifice fly, but the Indians kept pace again in the bottom of the inning, thanks to an RBI single from Lou Marson that made it 11-7.
Josh Donaldson stayed hot with a home run to lead off the top of the ninth against Cleveland closer Chris Perez.
The A's improved to a season-best 16 games over .500 with the win.
For more on the Oakland Athletics, join the discussion over at Athletics Nation. You can also check out everything we have to offer at Baseball Nation.