A’s ride early homers to series win over Cards

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals finished Interleague play with a thud on Sunday, watching as the A’s blasted a pair of early home runs and held on for a 7-4 victory that earned starter Andrew Triggs the first win of his big league career. For the Cardinals, the loss allowed the Pirates to creep to within a half-game of their hold on the National League’s second Wild Card spot.

With two weekend wins, the A’s were able to steal their second series victory on the road since the All-Star break. That’s more series wins than the Cardinals have at home during the same span. St. Louis, which has lost its last five home series, finished the season 1-9 at home against American League teams.

Oakland generated both of its run-scoring rallies against Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia with two outs. In the first, Khris Davis followed Danny Valencia’s infield single with his 34th home run. Two innings later, a three-run blast by Stephen Vogt staked Triggs to a four-run lead.

Garcia, who began the day with a 3.66 ERA at home, has now allowed seven home runs in his last three starts. He rebounded to finish seven innings, but then watched as the game unraveled in the hands of the bullpen.

The only trouble that Triggs, who was making his fifth career start, had was with Cardinals leadoff man Matt Carpenter. Carpenter keyed all three of St. Louis’ runs …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com