“It was a simple surgery but the rehab was kind of lengthy”, said Melvin. “When he has both of those working, he can use both sides of the plate and it can be effective against any team”. Billy Butler singled home Vogt with two outs in the sixth to snap a 1-1 tie.
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Jones finished with two of Baltimore’s three hits.
The Baltimore Orioles moved back into sole possession of first place in the American League East with a strong start to their 10-game road trip and have won five of seven.
Adam Jones got Baltimore back within a run in the top of the fourth when he led off with the first hit against Neal, a long home run, his 22nd, into the left field seats. Manager Buck Showalter said he will decide whether to put Pearce on the disabled list before the Orioles begin a three-game series against San Francisco on Friday. “For a guy that’s thrown 39, 40 pitches tops for us in relief here recently, to give us 75, 80 is what I was looking for from him and he was terrific”.
Oakland scored three runs total while getting swept in a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs over the weekend and didn’t get much going against Baltimore either.
Graveman had struggled of late, giving up nine hits and six runs while lasting four innings during his last start against the Angels August 3. The Athletics have allowed six runs in their last three games and four or more runs in 10 of their last 14 games.
“Last year it would have taken me four or five weeks to get out of it”, Graveman said. “I thought that really got hitters off and it kind of got us some early strikes”.
Tiresome retired three batters and Ryan Madson pitched the ninth for his 23rd save.
Miley (7-10) pitched well but remained winless since arriving from Seattle a day before the trade deadline.
In his first start, Neal gave up seven runs over four innings in a 13-3 loss at Seattle on May 25.
The defense behind Graveman included a leaping catch by Coco Crisp, who slammed into the center field wall after making the play to rob Mark Trumbo in the second. With one out, Marcus Semien and Jake Smolinski stroked back-to-back singles and Danny Valencia sliced a double down the right field line to score Semien. “It might have had something to do with it there”.
NOTES: Athletics RHP Sonny Gray (right forearm strain) said he was relieved to learn Monday night that he wouldn’t need surgery, but has no target date to resume throwing. INF Jed Lowrie (bunion) will see a foot specialist later this week.
Oakland had gone 26 innings without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position though the fifth inning, including going 0-for-7 in those five innings before the A’s broke through in the sixth, taking the lead in the process.
Oakland A’s rookie right-hander Zach Neal was watching the MLB Network before his second career major league start Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles when he learned a fact about his opponent.
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Neal was ideal through the first three innings, and the A’s got him a pair of runs in the bottom of the third.
