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Sparkling Gonzalez allows one hit, A's clip Marlins

Jun 29, 2011 - 6:29 AM Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Gio Gonzalez sparkled, giving up just one hit in eight innings to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 1-0 win over Florida in the opener of a three-game interleague series on Tuesday.

Gonzalez (7-5) retired 13 straight batters after allowing a leadoff single to Emilio Bonifacio to start the game.

In between Bonifacio's hit and when Andrew Bailey came in to pitch the ninth, Gonzalez allowed just three more baserunners -- all on walks. He struck out nine and threw 62 of his 106 pitches for strikes.

"Performance wise, that's the best I've seen him pitch," said interim A's manager Bob Melvin, who took over three weeks ago. "It ranks right up there as one of the best-pitched games by a starter since I've been here."

Not wanting to put Gonzalez in a position where he would need to be pulled after giving up a hit in the ninth, Melvin turned to Bailey.

"I felt that was the thing to do," Melvin said.

Leading off, Bonifacio reached second base on a grounder after third baseman Scott Sizemore threw past first base. But Bailey struck out the last three batters of the game to strand him at second and earn his sixth save.

Kurt Suzuki knocked in the only run with a sacrifice fly off Marlins starter Javier Vazquez (4-8) in the second inning and the A's won for the second time in three games.

The Marlins, meanwhile, fell to 2-5 under interim manager Jack McKeon and to 3-23 in a dreadful June.

Vazquez wasn't bad -- he pitched well enough to give the Marlins a chance. In seven inning, he allowed just one unearned run on three hits, striking out five and walking none.

The start of the game was delayed 72 minutes because of rain. After it started, Bonifacio worked a full count before singling to right. Gonzalez got a double play in the inning and faced the minimum until walking Jose Lopez with two outs in the fifth inning.

Oakland scored its run after Hideki Matsui led off the second inning with a double -- the only extra-base hit of the game -- and Conor Jackson reached on shortstop Hanley Ramirez's throwing error.

Both runners moved up on Ryan Sweeney's ground out, and Matsui scored on Suzuki's fly ball to right field.

Game Notes

The A's started a nine-game homestand. Despite the win, they are still just 2-4 since a six-game winning streak...Burke Badenhop and Randy Choate pitched the eighth inning for Florida.