Oakland Athletics defeat San Francisco Giants 5-2 – MLB Update
The Oakland Athletics overpowered the defending World Series champions San Francisco Giants 5-2, in the series-opener at the O.co Coliseum Field, California on Friday, June 17 to take their winning streak to three-games.
The Athletics started the game with an RBI single and then they added two run each in the third and the eighth inning to cement their 31st win of the series. The Giants, on the other hand, managed just two runs with one-run each in the second
and the sixth inning.
The A’s Conor Jackson drove in a single off the Giants’ starter Tim Lincecum in the bottom of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead. However, the Giants’ left-fielder Cody Ross launched a 401-feet long one-run homer off the A’s starter Graham Godfrey
in the top of the second inning to tie the game 1-all.
"We don't have guys that are going to hit 50 home runs on this team so we have to manufacture runs any way we can," said Jackson. "That's one of, if not the, best pitcher in the game so we had to figure out a way."
In the bottom of the third inning, the A’s Josh Willingham drove in a line drive lead generating single off Lincecum. Following this, Conor scored an RBI single to widen the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning.
As the batters gained a two run lead, Graham took full advantage of this chance and utilised his fastballs. He held the Giants to one-score until the sixth inning and he might not have given further run, if short-stop Cliff Pennington would have captured
Aubrey Huff’s line drive that allowed Bill Hall to score a run.
After these two runs, Graham did not scatter any run and completed his seven innings with six allowed hits, two runs and three strike-outs. The 26-year-old rookie hurler managed to earn his first win in the second start of the career.
Lincecum allowed three runs on five hits, walked five batters and struck-out seven batters over six innings, but could not prevent him from getting the sixth loss of the season. His reliever Javier Lopez did not give any run in seventh inning but closer
Guillermo Mota yielded two runs on three hits in the eighth inning.
The A’s reliever Grant Balfour and closer Andrew Bailey each threw a scoreless inning.
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