Athletics put up 6-spot in 6th, steal win from Nationals

The Oakland Athletics stole a win away from the Washington Nationals this afternoon, putting up 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to capture a 7-6 victory.

The rally was kicked off by Tyler Nevin, who singled in Abraham Toro on a line drive to right. Then Lawrence Butler drove in JJ Bleday to cut the lead to 6-3. They scored two more on a passed ball and a walk before Toro, in his second at bat of the inning, singled in two more runs to give the A's a 7-6 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

Dany Jimenez and Lucas Erceg pitched a clean inning apiece and Mason Miller came in and struck out the side in the 9th to close it out. Miller earned his third save of the season with today's victory.

Erceg made a wild defensive play on a soft ground ball up the middle. He reached through his legs after outrunning the ball and swatted the ball to first baseman Ryan Noda to get Jesse Winker for the out at first.

The A's were able to rack up 11 hits on the day. Both Bleday and Butler put in three-hit performances and they struck out just 9 times, a vast improvement over yesterday's mark of 18.

Their 47 runs scored are still 29th in the league and they have a bottom 5 run differential, but they have found a way to win some close games in the past week. Their last four wins have all come by one run.

That probably isn't repeatable over the long term but the A's will take all the wins they can get, regardless of how pretty they are.

Starter Alex Wood had another bad outing today. He gave up 4 runs on 7 hits in 4.1 innings, getting 4 strikeouts and walking 4. His ERA increased to 8.10 on the year and he's pitched into the 5th inning in just one of his four starts.

He's not inspiring much confidence at the moment. He hasn't shown the ability to pitch deep into games and his WHIP is an abysmal 2.10, good for 157th among the 171 pitchers to throw at least an inning this year.

Wood is lined up to make his next start over the upcoming weekend in Cleveland. The Guardians carved him up on Opening Day so we'll see if the lefty can get one back on them.

As for the Athletics, they'll line up for a three game set against the St. Louis Cardinals starting tomorrow. Ross Stripling is slated to take on former A's starter Sonny Gray. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm PDT.