Tigers starter Doug Fister allowed the leadoff runner to reach base for the third time in the last four innings. This time, though, it cost him, as Seth Smith was sacrificed to second and scored on an RBI single by Cliff Pennington, giving the A’s a 2-1 lead in the seventh.
Fister got out of the inning by getting Coco Crisp and Stephen Drew, but Oakland has a late lead and has gotten to a crack in the Tigers’ starting staff. It was a good ploy by A’s manager Bob Melvin to go for the ‘small-ball’ run, understanding that it would be a tight game otherwise.
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