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Wednesday, Apr. 19 7:05pm ET
Tejada's slam part of 4-homer night for A's | ||||||
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CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Oakland Athletics came to Jacobs Field thinking about a sweep -- their own. Miguel Tejada hit his first career grand slam and Oakland hit four home runs to back Kevin Appier in a 10-5 victory over the lifeless Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.
"It didn't look good when we left home, did it?" asked A's manager Art Howe, whose team faced a seven-game swing through Boston and Cleveland after being swept by the Indians. "It's funny how it works. You never know when you'll start getting hits and when you'll start making plays." Jason Giambi, Ben Grieve and Matt Stairs also homered for the A's, who chased Jaret Wright (2-1) in the fourth inning. Wright pitched a five-hit shutout in his previous start in Oakland. "He didn't have great command of his location and he didn't have control of his fastball," Stairs said. "He started getting the ball high in the zone and we took advantage of that." Meanwhile, Cleveland fell to 1-4 at home this season, and if not for back-to-back homers in the ninth inning to beat Texas on Sunday, the Indians would be winless at Jacobs Field in 2000. Cleveland's entire lineup is in an offensive funk. After averaging 7.7 runs in going 7-2 on the road to open the season, the Indians are batting just .215 and have scored only 18 runs in five home dates. "I really felt we could have scored more runs tonight, though," Indians manager Charlie Manuel said. "We just didn't get the hits in the key situations." Roberto Alomar homered twice for Cleveland. Appier (3-1) didn't have to be very good to win his third straight start. He allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings. He walked six but twice worked his way out of jams. "I was able to get some big outs," Appier said. "I had some pretty good stuff at times and I managed to keep the score down. Our offense was incredible again." Giambi, who has 20 RBI this season, opened the third inning with his seventh homer, a shot to straightaway center to give the A's a 3-1 lead. One out later, Grieve connected for his second homer. Wright gave up a leadoff single to Ryan Christenson in the fourth and was done after Tejada hit an RBI double to make it 5-1. Wright allowed five runs and seven hits in three-plus innings. "The biggest thing was I could not locate my fastball," Wright said. "I was behind in the count. Whatever I did last week in Oakland I did not do tonight." Stairs homered to lead off the fifth against DePaula, who was recalled Tuesday when pitcher Bartolo Colon went on the disabled list. A single and two walks loaded the bases for Tejada, whose slam came in his 1,106th at-bat. The A's snapped a 10-inning scoreless string against Wright in the second when Eric Chavez tripled off the center-field wall to score Grieve and Jorge Velandia hit an RBI groundout. Cleveland got a run back in the bottom of the inning on Einar Diaz's single that scored Travis Fryman, who doubled off Appier's leg. With two outs, Fryman hit a shot up the middle that struck Appier above his right ankle and caromed all the way into short right field, allowing Fryman to reach second.
Indians to put Sandy Alomar on DL | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Oakland Clubhouse Cleveland Clubhouse RECAPS Chi. White Sox 5 Seattle 2
Oakland 10
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