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Moss homers twice as A's rout Tigers

Aug 29, 2013 - 5:17 AM Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - Brandon Moss continued his power surge with a pair of homers and a career-high six RBI, and Oakland banged out a season-high 21 hits in a 14-4 thrashing of the Detroit Tigers.

Moss, who leads the A's with 24 homers this year, belted a two-run shot in the sixth inning and added a three-run blast in the eighth as part of a 4-for-5 performance. He also homered Tuesday in a 6-3 rain-shortened win for the A's.

"We did a good job of not wasting opportunities," Moss said. "We put together good at-bats. We didn't just go up there trying to do too much. Everybody stayed within themselves. That definitely builds some confidence."

Dan Straily pitched six innings of one-run ball to win for the first time in seven weeks, as the Athletics stayed within 2 1/2 games of first-place Texas in the AL West. Straily (7-7), who had been 0-5 with a 5.20 ERA in seven previous starts since he was recalled from Sacramento July 20, gave up eight hits, including a third-inning homer from Torii Hunter. Straily, who threw 103 pitches, notched his first victory since July 9 at Pittsburgh.

Josh Donaldson, Jed Lowrie, Alberto Callaspo and Kurt Suzuki each had three hits for the A's, who will go for their first four-game sweep of the Tigers since Aug. 3-6, 2001, which was also in Detroit.

It will be a tough task for the A's, who will oppose Max Scherzer (19-1). Bartolo Colon (14-5) is scheduled to be reinstated from the disabled list for Oakland.

Doug Fister (11-7) was pegged for 13 hits and seven runs over five innings for the AL Central leaders, who have given up 28 runs so far in this series.

"They were definitely putting pressure on us," Fister said.

Jose Alvarez yielded five hits and as many runs over the ensuing 2 1/3 frames.

The A's put together five consecutive singles to start the second with hits from Eric Sogard and Suzuki pushing across the first two runs. Donaldson added a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

Hunter's homer to left was one of three hits in the home third, but the A's piled on seven runs over a two-inning span, starting with the four-run fifth. Moss doubled to center off the glove of Austin Jackson to increase the margin to 4-1. Yoenis Cespedes, Callaspo and Sogard added run-scoring singles.

Lowrie's RBI-double was followed by a Moss two-run blast to right in the sixth off Alvarez for a 10-1 cushion.

Donaldson singled in a run in the eighth, and after Lowrie doubled, Moss smashed a 2-2 offering from Drew Smyly over the wall in right for a 14-1 lead. It was the sixth homer in the last nine games for Moss.

Andy Dirks singled in a run and scored on Alex Avila's two-run double in the bottom of the eighth.

Game Notes

The 14 runs tied a season-high for the A's ... Detroit's Miguel Cabrera has reached base safely in 31 straight games ... This is Moss' fourth-career multi-home run game ... Brett Anderson, who was activated from the 60-day disabled list Wednesday, threw the final three innings to get his first career save. Anderson, who was making only the second relief appearance of his career, hadn't pitched since April 29 due to a fractured foot. The A's opened a roster spot for Anderson by optioning pitcher Tommy Milone to Triple-A Sacramento.