Athletics 9 - 6 Giants
Final
  for this game

A's down Giants, win sixth straight

May 30, 2013 - 6:50 AM San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Nate Freiman drove in three runs and the Oakland Athletics earned their sixth straight win, 9-6, over the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a two-game interleague series between cross-bay foes.

Coco Crisp singled, walked, hit a sacrifice fly and scored twice while Yoenis Cespedes added an RBI triple for an Oakland club that has rattled off 11 wins in its last 12 games.

Tommy Milone (5-5) earned the victory despite giving up four runs on eight hits and three walks over five-plus innings.

Hunter Pence and Brett Pill each hit solo homers, while Andres Torres and Marco Scutaro each had two hits and drove in a run for the Giants, who were coming off two losses in Oakland and have dropped five of their last seven overall.

"We just didn't play well. There's no sugarcoating this thing. We pretty much covered all facets of the game tonight as far as not playing well," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Tim Lincecum (3-5), who came in with a 2.17 ERA in nine career starts against the A's, didn't make it out of the fifth inning. The two-time Cy Young Award winner was touched for six runs -- five earned -- on seven hits and four walks over just 4 1/3 frames to take the loss.

The A's, losers in 11 of their last 12 at AT&T Park coming in, were ahead by a 6-1 margin before the Giants pushed three across in the sixth.

Milone was pulled after yielding a homer to Pill and back-to-back singles to open the inning. Brandon Crawford scored on Joaquin Arias' pinch-hit sacrifice fly, and Gregor Blanco raced around on Torres' controversial double.

Torres hit a ball just over the third-base bag and toward the seats. A fan reached over the short fence and touched the ball, which should have been a ground-rule double. Third base umpire Gerry Davis, however, never saw the fan interfere with the ball, and Torres smartly kept running around the bases to cut the Giants' deficit to 6-4.

Oakland tacked on an insurance run in the eighth as Eric Sogard led off with a double, moved to third on a bunt and scored on Crisp's sac fly to left.

The run proved to be the game-winner after Scutaro and Sandoval each had two- out, run-scoring hits off Sean Doolittle in the bottom half.

Jean Machi couldn't keep the Giants close in the ninth. Torres' error in left field allowed Seth Smith to score from first and Freiman added an RBI single with two outs.

Grant Balfour closed the door in the bottom half to pick up his 12th save of the season.

"It was exhausting," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "You get momentum going in the other direction here sometimes and it's hard to stem the tide."

Crisp led off the game with a walk and scored standing up when Blanco played Cespedes' deep fly ball into a triple. Another miscue in the field allowed Cespedes to score, as a back-peddling Scutaro knocked Donaldson's short fly into right field away from a hard-charging Pence.

Pence homered in the second, and Oakland padded its lead with four runs in the fifth.

Crisp again was the catalyst at the top of the lineup, starting the frame with a single and scoring on Jed Lowrie's double to center field. A walk and a single loaded the bases, and John Jaso's RBI single chased Lincecum from the game.

Freiman kept Oakland's momentum going when he greeted Javier Lopez with a pinch-hit, two-run base hit for a 6-1 Oakland lead.

Game Notes

Giants starters have combined for just two quality starts in their last 15 games ... Lincecum has lost five of his last six decisions ... Cespedes extended his hitting streak to 11 games ... Pence homered for the second straight day after going 17 straight games without one ... Balfour has converted each of his last 30 save opportunities dating back to last year ... The Giants stranded 10 runners.






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