O's Hand A's 7th Straight Loss
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Brian Matusz and three relievers combined on a seven-hitter, and the Baltimore Orioles beat Oakland 4-2 Monday night to extend the Athletics' losing streak to a season-high seven games.
Matt Wieters had two hits, an RBI and scored a run for the Orioles, who took a 4-0 lead after two innings against Gio Gonzalez (5-4).
Adam Rosales homered for the A's, who have lost 15 of 19 to fall a season-worst seven games under .500 (27-34). Rosales was playing in his first game of the year after a stint on the disabled list with a broken right foot.
Matusz (1-0) allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings to earn his first win of the season. He spent the first two months on the DL with a strained left oblique muscle.
The left-hander was lifted in the sixth after giving up successive one-out singles to Kurt Suzuki and pinch-hitter Scott
Sizemore, who was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento hours earlier.
Jim Johnson entered and got Rosales to bounce into a 1-6-3 double play.
Johnson retired the side in order in the seventh, Koji Uehara worked a perfect eighth and Kevin Gregg got three straight outs for his 11th save.
Baltimore had lost 20 of its last 24 games against Oakland and was swept in a three-game series last week.
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead with an unearned first-inning run. After shortstop Cliff Pennington muffed a potential double-play grounder, Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-out RBI single.
Baltimore made it 4-0 in the second. Derrek Lee led off with a single, stole second and continued to third on an overthrow by Suzuki. Wieters followed with an RBI single, J.J. Hardy singled, and both moved up on a wild pitch before Nolan Reimold hit a sacrifice fly and Nick Markakis singled in a run.
The A's two errors gave them 45 for the season. Oakland started the day with the second-most errors in the AL, two behind Texas. Rosales connected in the fourth with a man on. It was his first home run since July 18, 2010, at Kansas City.
Gonzalez gave up four runs, three earned, and nine hits in seven innings.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
