Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) – Adam Rosales hit a solo homer and Vin Mazzaro tossed 7 1/3 solid innings, as the Oakland Athletics earned a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in the rubber match of a three-game series at Progressive Field.
Mark Ellis went 2-for-3 with an RBI single and Ryan Sweeney also knocked in a run for Oakland, which has won seven of its last nine.
Mazzaro (4-2) allowed one run on seven hits with one walk and struck out seven. Andrew Bailey threw a scoreless ninth to record his 17th save of the season.
Austin Kearns accounted for the lone run with an RBI single for the Indians, who had won six of seven entering the contest. Jhonny Peralta and Trevor Crowe each had a pair of hits in defeat.
Fausto Carmona (7-7) was the hard-luck loser for yielding seven hits and three runs over seven frames. The right-hander, who was selected to the 81st All- Star Game earlier on Sunday, walked three and struck out three.
Oakland opened the scoring in the first on Sweeney’s RBI groundout that brought in Coco Crisp.
Cleveland then tied it with a two-out run in the third. With runners on the corners, Kearns grounded a single through the left side that scored Carlos Santana, who started the rally with a base hit.
Ellis put the Athletics back in front with a run-scoring single in the fourth and Rosales belted his homer to left in the seventh make it a 3-1 game.
Tony Sipp took over for Carmona in the top of the eighth and worked out of some two-out trouble. Meanwhile, Mazzaro retired 11 straight hitters, but served up a one-out double to Jayson Nix in the home eighth and was replaced by Jerry Blevins. The left-hander came on and fanned Santana and set down Travis Hafner to end the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, Bailey gave up a one-out single to Peralta before getting Matt LaPorta to bounce into a 5-4-3 double play to preserve the victory.
Prior to the game, the Indians placed outfielder Shin-Soo Choo on the disabled list with a right thumb injury and recalled Michael Brantley from Triple-A Columbus…Pitcher Trevor Cahill will represent the Athletics at this year’s All-Star Game…Crisp left the game in the second inning with left hamstring tightness.