A's beat Dodgers behind Milone's CG
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tommy Milone tossed his first career complete game on Wednesday as the Oakland Athletics downed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1, in the middle installment of a three-game series at the Coliseum.
Milone (7-5) surrendered just one run on three hits and one walk and retired 22 of the final 24 batters he faced to snap a personal four-game winless skid.
"I have to give it to my defense tonight," said Milone. "I was throwing balls over the plate and they were hitting them and they were making plays out there."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brandon Moss crushed a solo home run and Yoenis Cespedes added an RBI and a run scored for the A's, who have won seven of their last eight games.
Nathan Eovaldi (0-3) remains winless on the year after giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks over six frames to absorb the loss.
Juan Uribe plated the only Dodger run with a double in the second as Los Angeles has managed just five hits over the first two games of this series.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Their pitch count has been down both nights, that means they've been throwing strikes and forced us to swing the bat," admitted Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. "They've kind of attacked us and really kept us down."
After Juan Rivera singled to start the second, Uribe lofted a ball into shallow right, where Josh Reddick made a diving attempt at the ball, but it popped out of his glove as he hit the ground, allowing Rivera to score to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The A's evened the game in the fourth as Cespedes doubled to start the frame and came around to score when Seth Smith clubbed a two-bagger of his own to knot the game at 1-1.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Oakland then loaded the bases in the fifth as Eric Sogard singled, Coco Crisp walked and Jemile Weeks reached first on a perfect bunt single.
Reddick followed with a tailor-made double-play groundout, but it was good enough to plate Sogard from third and provide the A's with a 2-1 edge.
Cespedes then lofted a single into shallow left-center field, scoring Crisp to make it a two-run margin.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Milone shut the Dodgers down after the second, retiring 14 batters in a row before Jerry Hairston singled with one-out in the seventh. Milone then induced back-to-back groundouts to keep it a two-run game.
Oakland tacked on an insurance run in the eighth when Moss crushed a two-out blast deep into the right-center field seats to extend the lead to 4-1 before Milone fired a perfect ninth to complete the A's first complete game of the season.
Game Notes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Oakland holds an 11-2 edge in the series at home in interleague play...Milone improved to 5-1 in six starts at home and hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in any of those starts...LA finished 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left four on base.