Yoenis Cespedes drove in three runs, Chris Carter hit his eighth home run in just his 18th game and Bartolo Colon threw 5.2 shutout innings as the Oakland A’s rolled to a 6-1 win over Baltimore at Camden Yards. The win moved Oakland to a major league best 18-3 in July as they can move into first place in the Wild Card standings with a loss by the Los Angeles Angels tonight.
Colon was not exactly dominant, but he made enough quality pitches to keep Baltimore from scoring. He scattered seven hits with one walk in his 5.2 innings while striking out five hitters. Jordan Norberto and Evan Scribner pitched the final 3.1 innings with the only run coming on a Nick Markakis home run in the bottom of the ninth.
Oakland scored first when after a Jemile Weeks’ single, Cespedes mashed a 3-2 slider from Orioles‘ starter Tommy Hunter to make it 2-0 in the fourth inning. The A’s would make it 3-0 in the fifth when Eric Sogard singled home Kurt Suzuki, who doubled to the opposite field to start the rally.
In the sixth inning, after Cespedes reached on a fielder’s choice, Carter crushed an inside fastball about nine rows up in the left field seats to give the A’s a 5-0 lead. Cespedes would end the scoring by hitting a triple to deep right field scoring Weeks and making it 6-0.
At the 100-game mark, the A’s move 10 games over .500 for the first time at 55-45. They will look for the sweep Sunday afternoon as Travis Blackley will face Baltimore’s Wei-Yin Chen. First pitch is set for 10:35 a.m.
Note: According to a tweet by CBSSports.com Insider Jon Heyman, the A’s have reached an agreement to acquire Milwaukee Brewers catcher George Kottaras. Kottaras has splits of .209/.409/.364 and bats left handed, giving manager Bob Melvin potentially more lineup flexibility as the season reaches the home stretch. It’s currently unknown what/who the Brewers will receive in exchange for Kottaras.
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