A's ride Brooks' dominant debut past Tribe
OAKLAND -- Aaron Brooks dazzled in his A's debut, holding the Indians to one run across 7 1/3 innings to help his new club snap a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory at the Coliseum on Saturday night.
Lonnie Chisenhall hit Brooks' lone mistake for a solo home run in the fifth inning. The right-hander, acquired from Kansas City this week in the Ben Zobrist trade, allowed just four other hits, striking out five and walking none for his first career win.
"What a night for him," catcher Stephen Vogt said. "He pitched his tail off. Any time you come into a new team, you want to make your first appearance count, and he did that and then some. He took a good lineup over there and shut them down tonight."
Video: CLE@OAK: Melvin talks about Brooks' outing in win
Indians starter Cody Anderson -- pitching in front of roughly 100 family and friends from his hometown of Quincy, Calif. -- took the loss after yielding four runs (three earned) in 6 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits, including Marcus Semien's solo shot to left field in the seventh.
Anderson joked that Quincy "might've shut down" on Saturday.
"It was fun. It was almost like making a debut again," Anderson said. "There were a lot of people that are from northern Bay Area, from my hometown, family. It was definitely exciting to get to pitch in front of them."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Breaking through: After Cleveland's lineup was silenced for the first four innings, Chisenhall got the Tribe on the board with his fifth home run of the year. Chisenhall (recalled from Triple-A on Thursday) drilled a 3-2 offering from Brooks to center field for a solo shot, pulling the game into a 1-1 tie. The blast came one game after Chisenhall had a three-hit showing. More >
"Just hitting the ball hard is encouraging," Chisenhall said. "I felt I took some healthy swings today. I'm swinging at good pitches and I took some borderline pitches, which I was happy with. I'm moving in the right direction."
Don't run on Lon: Chisenhall, who is getting a trial run as an outfielder after a career spent mostly as a third baseman, showed off his arm in right field in the fifth inning. Eric Sogard singled to right and Max Muncy tried to score from second on the play. Chisenhall gloved the roller and came up firing, sending a pinpoint throw to the plate to nab Muncy. It was Chisenhall's first career outfield assist.
"It looked like he had been out there for a while," Indians manager Terry Francona said of Chisenhall. "He came in and threw that ball better than most right fielders. That was a really nice play."
Video: CLE@HOU: Chisenhall cuts down Muncy at home plate
Gift-wrapped: The A's sent one right back to Chisenhall courtesy of a Sam Fuld single. This time, Semien easily made it home from second base, and Sogard was right behind him after cutoff man Carlos Santana made an errant throw to third, giving an offensively starved A's team an extra run.
"He did the right play," said Francona, referring to Santana. "We had him out at third. That was the right play. He just didn't move his feet and, because of that, the ball sailed on him."
Video: CLE@OAK: Fuld plates Semien, Sogard scores on error
Long gone: After mustering just three hits total in the first two games of this series, the A's collected eight in the third matchup. Semien's seventh-inning solo shot to left field made the most noise, as the shortstop put a career-long streak of 17 games without an RBI to rest. It was Semien's ninth home run of the season.
"We had huge, clutch hits," Vogt said. "Everybody contributed tonight to the win. It was a huge, huge team win for us, especially after the last couple games and last week really. This week's over. We kind of talked about that today. It's August 1, trade deadline's over, now we go. This is a good team in this clubhouse, and that was a great win for us tonight to come out and make a push these last two months. Let's have some fun."
Video: CLE@OAK: Semien belts a solo homer to left-center
QUOTABLE
"I think there were 14, not including the stadium, making me feel like a family." -- Brooks, on friends and family members in attendance
Video: CLE@OAK: Brooks exits to a great ovation in Oakland
REPLAY REVIEW
In the eighth inning, Fuld singled and then stole second base. Francona was quick to challenge the bang-bang play on the steal attempt, though. After an replay review lasting one minute and 38 seconds, the safe ruling on the stolen base was confirmed by the crew in New York.
Video: CLE@OAK: Fuld safe at second, call confirmed
WHAT'S NEXT
Indians: The Tribe will hand the ball to righty Trevor Bauer (8-8, 4.13 ERA) at 4:05 p.m. ET for the finale of this four-game road set by the Bay. Bauer has gone 5-3 with a 2.47 ERA in nine road starts this season and is coming off a complete game against the Royals. In that Tuesday start, though, he took a loss despite allowing two runs in nine innings.
A's: Sonny Gray, who is coming off his second shutout of the season -- a three-hit gem against the Dodgers -- will be back on the mound at 1:05 p.m. PT Sunday at the Coliseum. The right-hander's other shutout came against the Indians, who managed just two hits against him July 12 in Cleveland.
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