Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Oakland 8, Cleveland 5
When: 9:05 PM ET, Saturday, August 18, 2012
Where: O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California
Temperature: 65°
Umpires: Home - Sam Holbrook, 1B - Andy Fletcher, 2B - Rob Drake, 3B - Joe West
Attendance: 30132

Athletics 8, Indians 5:
Bartolo Colon bounced back with eight solid innings and Yoenis Cespedes homered and drove in three as host Oakland won its third straight.

Coco Crisp tripled in a pair, Josh Reddick doubled in a run and Josh Donaldson added an RBI for the Athletics, who stayed within a half-game of the second wild card spot in the American League.

Colon (10-9) had a streak of three straight starts without allowing an earned run come to an end in a loss last weekend but found that strong form again quickly against Cleveland. The burly right-hander did not allow a baserunner through the first three innings and ended up surrendering one run on five hits while striking out three.

Oakland built a big inning in the fourth against Indians rookie Corey Kluber (0-2). Asdrubal Cabrera’s throwing error allowed the first batter to reach and Kluber was charged with four unearned runs as the A’s piled on.

Donaldson’s RBI groundout opened the scoring and Reddick followed with his RBI double into the gap in left-center. Cespedes capped the frame, pulling his 16th home run just over the scoreboard in left for a 4-0 lead.

George Kottaras would add an RBI single in the sixth before the Indians finally got on the board in the seventh on Carlos Santana’s solo home run.

Cespedes tacked on an RBI single in the seventh and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games. Crisp’s triple came in the eighth and made it 8-1.

Cleveland made things interesting in the ninth, with Shin-Soo Choo and Brent Lillibridge each hitting a two-run homer, but Grant Balfour came on for the final out and picked up his 11th save.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Athletics held a pregame ceremony honoring the 10th anniversary of the 2002 team and its AL record 20-game winning streak. … Oakland LHP Brett Anderson (elbow) threw a bullpen session on Saturday and is close to returning to the rotation. … Cleveland is 1-4 just past the halfway point of its nine-game west coast road trip. … Indians RHP Cody Allen was not charged with a run in two-thirds of an inning, giving him 13 consecutive scoreless innings to begin his career - the best mark for any Cleveland reliever since at least 1974.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Cleveland   Oakland
Corey Kluber Player Bartolo Colon
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 8.0
2 Strikeouts 3
4 Hits 5
0.00 ERA 1.12
Hitting
Cleveland   Oakland
Shin-Soo Choo Player Yoenis Cespedes
2 Hits 2
2 RBI 3
1 HR 1
5 TB 5
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Cleveland 10 3 20 .278 8 5 5 0 0 2
Oakland 9 1 16 .290 15 4 8 6 2 0