Carlos Perez had three hits, including a home run, and the visiting Oakland Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 Wednesday night to snap a six-game losing streak.
Brent Rooker homered, singled and had three RBIs for Oakland, which plated eight runs for the second straight game.
Chad Smith (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the win.
Rooker and Jace Peterson opened the Oakland eighth with singles off Keegan Akin (0-1). Cionel Perez replaced Akin and Aledmys Diaz loaded the bases with a bunt single. Jesus Aguilar’s sacrifice fly put the A’s ahead 5-4, and Oakland scored runs on a safety squeeze and Perez’s RBI single to take control for good.
The A’s added a run in the ninth on Esteury Ruiz’s RBI single.
Oakland starter Ken Waldichuk went 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out four while throwing a career-high 107 pitches.
Baltimore starter Dean Kremer allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings. Kremer has given up four runs or more in each of his first three starts.
Jorge Mateo had two hits for Baltimore.
Oakland leadoff batter Tony Kemp doubled to start the first. With one out, Ramon Laureano was hit by a pitch before Rooker homered to center on an 0-2 breaking ball to give the A’s an early 3-0 lead.
The Orioles got two runs back in the second. Ramon Urias led off with a single and Gunnar Henderson walked. Mateo doubled, scoring Urias. Henderson stopped at third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan McKenna, but Waldichuk got Austin Hays to ground into an inning-ending double play to prevent further damage.
Perez increased the lead to 4-2 when he opened the fifth with a homer to left.
The Orioles tied it in the seventh. Adam Frazier singled with one out and Jeurys Familia replaced Waldichuk. Frazier went to second on a passed ball and scored on pinch hitter Cedric Mullins’ base hit. Mullins went to second on a groundout and scored on Adley Rutschman’s line-drive single to right to make it 4-4.
–Field Level Media
