A's pound Tigers, back Manaea's 1st victory of season, 8-4

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Stephen Piscotty and Matt Olson homered to back Sean Manaea's first victory of the season, and the Oakland Athletics won their fifth straight game by beating the Detroit Tigers 8-4 on Thursday night.

Piscotty connected in the third inning off Tarik Skubal (0-2), and Olson went deep in the fifth. Elvis Andrus added a sacrifice fly as Manaea (1-1) received plenty of support. He struck out seven and didn't walk a batter over six strong innings.

The left-hander allowed two runs on five hits and has a nine-game winning streak against AL Central teams dating to a victory against Cleveland in August 2016 during his rookie season.

Matt Chapman had a two-run double and the defending AL West champs are suddenly surging following a forgettable 0-6 start, having won six of seven. Oakland also capitalized on a pair of bases-loaded walks.

Niko Goodrum homered for Detroit, which was coming off a sweep at Houston in manager A.J. Hinch's return following the sign-stealing scheme that got him fired by the Astros before the shortened 2020 season. That came after a four-game skid by the Tigers and losses in six of seven.

Oakland — which drew a crowd of 3,004 — began a stretch of seven straight against the AL Central and improved to 66-20 versus that division since June 23, 2017. The A's have scored 37 runs during their winning streak.

REACHING OUT

Last summer, Hinch reached out to A's manager Bob Melvin to apologize for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scam when he managed Houston.

They have a longtime respect and strong working relationship as colleagues from their days together with the Diamondbacks.

“I've worked with Bob in a couple different ways,” Hinch said. “I had him when I was in the front office, he was the manager, then I end up being...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/A-s-pound-Tigers-back-Manaea-s-1st-victory-of-16105400.php