Oakland, CA - Jeremy Guthrie tossed seven innings of two-hit shutout ball as Baltimore bested Oakland, 2-0, in the rubber match of a three- game series at McAfee Coliseum.
Guthrie (6-3) struck out six and walked three, lowering his ERA to 2.88, third-lowest in the American League. He did not allow a runner past second base in his start. Kevin Millar and Jay Payton knocked in a run each for the Orioles, who have won three of five.
Travis Buck and Shannon Stewart picked up the lone hits for the Athletics, who have dropped four of six. Dallas Braden (1-5) took the loss, allowing four hits and one run over seven innings.
The Orioles broke a scoreless tie in the sixth. Brian Roberts worked a lead- off walk and Corey Patterson sacrificed him to second. Nick Markakis moved him to third with a ground out, and Millar scored him on a base hit to left.
Baltimore added an insurance run in the ninth when Markakis singled and stole second, then two batters later scored on Payton’s base hit.
Chad Bradford worked a perfect eighth and Jamie Walker retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his first save of the season, and first since 2004.
Game Notes
Patterson extended his hit streak to 10 games…Braden suffered his fifth straight loss, the first A’s pitcher to do so since Joe Kennedy in 2005…Dan Haren (2.41) and Johan Santana (2.65) rank ahead of Guthrie in earned-run average…A’s second-baseman Mark Ellis extended his errorless streak to 57 games.
