Sean Murphy hit a fifth-inning grand slam and finished with five RBIs in the Oakland Athletics' 10-6 victory over the host Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
Murphy's 17th home run of the season stretched Oakland's lead to 10-5, helping the Athletics to their first three-game winning streak in a month.
Tony Kemp and Dermis Garcia, who smacked his first career home run, both drove in two runs for the A's. Murphy and Kemp each had three hits as Oakland posted a double-digit run total for just the fourth time this season.
The Nationals failed to protect a three-run lead they possessed after two innings. Lane Thomas and Luis Garcia hit solo homers for Washington, while rookie Joey Meneses hit three doubles.
Cole Irvin (7-11) picked up the victory despite allowing five runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one in his shortest outing in 12 starts.
Athletics reliever Austin Pruitt worked two innings of one-run ball before Kirby Snead and Domingo Acevedo finished.
Nationals starter Erick Fedde (5-9) remained winless since June 21. He surrendered six runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.
Murphy got the scoring started with a first-inning RBI single. In the bottom of the inning, Thomas led off with his 14th homer of the season, and Nelson Cruz hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning for a 2-1 lead.
The Nationals tacked on two runs in the second inning on an RBI single from Thomas and a run-scoring double from Meneses.
Then came Oakland's five-run third inning, with Dermis Garcia, playing in his 11th major league game, supplying the highlight with a two-run homer. Nick Allen singled home a run, and Kemp added a two-run double.
Menesses, who finished 3-for-5, doubled home a run in the fourth as Washington cut the gap to 6-5.
Murphy's slam came off reliever Steve Cishek, who was charged with all four runs in the inning.
Luis Garcia's consolation solo shot came in the eighth off Pruitt.
--Field Level Media
Oakland | Washington | |
Cole Irvin | Player | Erick Fedde |
Win | W/L | Loss |
5.1 | IP | 2.2 |
6 | Strikeouts | 4 |
9 | Hits | 9 |
8.44 | ERA | 20.25 |
Oakland | Washington | |
Tony Kemp | Player | Joey Meneses |
3 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 6 |
.750 | Avg | .600 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Oakland | 13 | 2 | 22 | .333 | 19 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Washington | 11 | 2 | 20 | .306 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |