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Gee suffers first loss as A's down Mets

Jun 22, 2011 - 4:37 AM Flushing, NY (Sports Network) - Dillon Gee won his first seven decisions this season and allowed a total of one run over his last three starts. Six walks did in the rookie on Tuesday.

Conor Jackson knocked in two runs and Jemile Weeks scored three times, as the Athletics handed a wild Gee his first loss of the season in a 7-3 triumph over the New York Mets.

Cliff Pennington had an RBI and scored twice in Oakland's sixth straight victory, its longest winning streak since taking seven in a row, September 14-20, 2009. Ryan Sweeney had four hits, including and RBI single.

Gee (7-1) suffered his first defeat in 13 games (11 starts) in 2011 and lasted just four innings, allowing three hits and four runs. The right-hander's seven straight winning decisions equaled the club record for rookies, but he threw more than half of his pitches (45-of-87) for balls in New York's fourth loss in five games.

"That's certainly not the guy we know," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "This is a game of adjustments. You have to adjust every day, every night, every inning, and I don't think we made any adjustments tonight. The sinker wasn't working, it was off the plate, whatever it was. You have to adjust. If that means you have to throw it down the middle, then you have to throw it down the middle."

Josh Outman (3-1) gave up four hits and one earned run over six innings for the Athletics, whose winning streak follows a stretch where they lost 13 of 14 and fired manager Bob Geren.

"We think some things are going to start going our way and they have," Outman said. "We're getting some hits falling here and there we weren't getting before. I think Gee threw a better game than he got credit for. It's nice to come out and beat a guy who has had a great season thus far."

Jason Bay homered, tripled and knocked in two runs for the Mets, who brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning but were shut down by Grant Balfour.

Bay tripled in Angel Pagan on a ball that caromed off the glove of a leaping Coco Crisp at the center field wall. Umpires reviewed the play for nearly four minutes to determine if the ball hit the back wall beyond the home run line after deflecting off Crisp's glove, but the call remained. Brian Fuentes hit pinch-hitter Willie Harris with a pitch on the right triceps and Balfour walked pinch-hitter Lucas Duda, but Josh Thole grounded weakly to second to end the inning.

Balfour recorded the last four outs to notch his second save of the year.

The opener of this three-game series began in shaky fashion for Gee, who walked both Weeks and Pennington in the opening frame before giving up a single to Crisp to load the bases with nobody out. Hideki Matsui's sacrifice fly and Jackson's RBI groundout provided the early advantage.

Gee walks four batters in a five-hitter stretch to start the third. That included one to Jackson to force in a run, and Sweeney's infield hit off the glove of second baseman Ruben Tejada made it 4-0.

Weeks failed to catch a two-out pop-up, opening the door for Tejada's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth, which Pagan scored on with a nice head-first slide at home.

But the A's added more runs in the fifth thanks to a pair of walks from reliever D.J. Carrasco. That included one to Kurt Suzuki with the bases full. Scott Sizemore's double play grounder plated another run for a 6-1 cushion.

Pennington grounded an RBI single up the middle in the sixth before Bay homered off the facing of the second deck in left in the bottom half of the frame.

Game Notes

Matsui, starting a game in the outfield for the first time since last July, made some running grabs in left field, one of which was against the fence down the left field line in the seventh inning on a ball hit by Thole...A's starting pitchers have a 5-0 mark over their last six games after going 0-11 with a 7.30 ERA over their previous 14 contests...This was Bay's first time with an extra base hit since May 19...New York had won four straight over Oakland, including a three-game sweep at Shea Stadium in 2007...Weeks has 16 hits in his first 12 games. The only Oakland Athletic with more hits in his first 12 career games is Mitchell Page (18).