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Wednesday, May 24 7:15pm ET
A's take Stairs, step over D-Rays | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Finally, Matt Stairs had a night at the plate he could feel good about. Oakland's designated hitter, breaking a 5-for-36 slump, hit a three-run homer off Dwight Gooden and finished with four RBI in the Athletics' 9-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Wednesday night. Stairs only went 1-for-4, but his performance was a breakthrough after going 7-for-45 (.156) with one homer and five RBIs in 13 games since missing four games because of a sore left knee. "It didn't give me confidence," he said of the 392-foot shot that put the A's ahead 3-1 in the second inning. "It was a little sigh of relief. But it's not going to be one of those things where I come out of the slump and boom, all of a sudden I'm going 4-for-4 every game." Kevin Appier (4-3) pitched six strong innings, limiting the Devil Rays to four hits and striking out eight to win for the first time since a stay on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right forearm. Terrence Long had a two-run double off Gooden (2-3), and Eric Chavez hit a solo homer off Cory Lidle in the eighth. Stairs also drove in a run in the seventh on a force play. Appier, who won for the first time since April 19, left after a leadoff walk in the seventh. Jeff Tam pitched three innings for his first major league save. "Appier was on top of his game," A's manager Art Howe said. "He got a little tired there in the seventh. We need to push him because he just came off the DL not too long ago. That was his longest stint in a while, and he did a nice job." The Oakland starter allowed two hits after giving up back-to-back doubles to Greg Vaughn and Fred McGriff in the first inning. Stairs wiped out Tampa Bay's 1-0 lead with his homer, and the A's scored four unearned runs off Gooden in the fourth even though they hit only one ball out of the infield. "I thought my stuff was pretty good right out of the gate, but my location wasn't really on track," Appier said. "I thought my stuff was as good as it's been all year." Since winning his first two decisions with the Devil Rays, Gooden is 0-3 and has allowed 10 homers, 25 runs and 34 hits in 21 2-3 innings. He has surrendered a team-high 14 homers overall, accounting for 21 of the 32 runs he's yielded since being obtained for cash from the Houston Astros. "I've been way too inconsistent," Gooden said. "I'll have a good inning, then a couple of bad ones and then a good one ... Everything that can go wrong so far, has. I've got to keep working on my mechanics and work through it." Long's two-out, bases-loaded double was the big blow of the fourth. But the A's also benefited from fielding errors by second baseman Miguel Cairo and shortstop Kevin Stocker, a walk and Sal Fasano's infield, RBI single that snapped a 1-for-19 slump. Stocker singled off Appier with two outs in the second, and Jose Guillen hit a solo homer with two outs in the sixth to cut Oakland's lead to 7-2. Gooden was 4-0 lifetime against the A's before Wednesday night, with all of the victories coming while he was with the New York Yankees. The 35-year-old right-hander has just three wins in his last 24 starts, going 3-7 with 14 no decisions. Game notesGooden, 10 wins shy of 200, is still looking for his first victory as a Devil Ray at Tropicana Field. The last time he lost three straight decisions was July 16-26, 1998 with Cleveland ... Seated in the stands among the season-low turnout of 13,039 were Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and super scout Gene Michael. Stairs and Tampa Bay's Jose Canseco are among the players the Yankees might be interested in adding. ... In addition to his fielding error in the fourth, Stocker had a throwing error in the fifth to give him 11 errors in 40 games. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Oakland Clubhouse Tampa Bay Clubhouse RECAPS Baltimore 4 Seattle 3
Oakland 9
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