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A's handle Orioles

Aug 17, 2011 - 6:56 AM Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Guillermo Moscoso had a quality start and the Athletics got plenty of offense to down the Orioles, 8-4, in the second meeting of a three-game series.

Moscoso (6-6) was charged with three runs -- two earned -- on five hits over six full frames.

Cliff Pennington went 3-for-4 with an RBI and run scored to help halt Oakland's four-game skid. Josh Willingham had a solo homer and Jemile Weeks drove in a run and scored once.

Brian Matusz (1-5), in his first big-league start since June 30, was touched for six runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings for Baltimore, which was coming off a 6-2 win in the opener of the set.

"I thought [Matusz] deserved a lot better than what the line may read," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

The A's struck for three runs in the second inning and never gave up the lead. Scott Sizemore doubled off the left-field wall to score Brandon Allen and raced around on a Pennington base hit. Weeks doubled to right to plate Kurt Suzuki for a 3-0 cushion.

Josh Bell's run-scoring groundout and Vladimir Guerrero's RBI double in the third and fourth innings, respectively, sandwiched Willingham's 20th home run of the season in the third.

"When you talk about goals, that's certainly one for [Willingham]," Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. "He expects to hit between 20 and 30 home runs every year."

Bell drove in another run in the fifth on a base hit to center to pull within 4-3, but that was as close as Baltimore got.

Coco Crisp contributed to three essential insurance runs in the seventh, lacing a two-run double to left-center, then scoring on Hideki Matsui's single to right.

Allen tripled leading off the eighth and trotted home on Suzuki's sacrifice fly to left to account for Oakland's final run.

Guerrero scored on Robert Andino's infield hit in the ninth.

Game Notes

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones had two outfield assists...Matusz, the fourth overall pick by the O's in the 2008 draft, was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk before the game...Willingham's error in the fifth gave Oakland 100 for the season. The A's had committed at least 100 errors in a season just once over the previous seven years (105 in 2009).