JACOBS FIELD Lawton, Vizquel lift Tribe past A's

Starting pitcher Ricardo Rodriguez had a solid outing for Cleveland.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Matt Lawton singled in the go-ahead run, and Omar Vizquel squeezed in another run in the eighth inning Saturday night to give the Cleveland Indians a 4-2 win over the Oakland Athletics.
Lawton, in a season-long slump, hit a one-out single to right off former Indians reliever Ricardo Rincon (2-3) to score pinch-hitter Brandon Phillips, who had walked.
Lawton's hit scooted under right fielder Terrence Long's glove, allowing Lawton to go to third. Vizquel followed with his squeeze to make it 4-2.
Vizquel's daring bunt came on Omar Vizquel Rubber Duck Night. Fans had been squeezing their small souvenirs even before the shortstop dropped his sacrifice down the first-base line as Lawton broke for the plate.
Terry Mulholland (1-1) got the win despite giving up Erubiel Durazo's tying home run in the eighth.
Danys Baez walked two in the ninth before striking out Eric Chavez and getting Miguel Tejada to ground into a force for his eighth save.
The A's went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.
Josh Bard homered and John McDonald hit a sacrifice fly for the Indians, who will go for a three-game sweep today.
Strong pitching
Ricardo Rodriguez held the A's to one run and three hits in six innings. He had lost his last four starts and was pounded by Texas in his prior outing. However, the right-hander dominated the A's before being pulled after 101 pitches.
Cleveland needed four relievers to get the through the seventh, with Jason Boyd preserving a 2-1 lead by getting Tejada on a comebacker with the bases loaded.
But Mulholland couldn't get past one batter in the eighth as Durazo tied it with his sixth homer.
Rodriguez took a shutout into the sixth before the A's scored on Durazo's RBI double that missed being a two-run homer by inches.
After Rodriguez walked Tejada with two outs, Durazo hit a fly to center that hit near the top of the 19-foot-high wall -- narrowly missing his sixth homer.
Durazo had better luck in the eighth, lining his homer over the wall in right.
Bard hit his first homer this season with two outs in the second, pulling a 1-2 pitch from John Halama over the wall in left. It was the rookie catcher's first homer since connecting on Sept. 5 last season.
The Indians scratched out their second run in the fifth with Bard scoring on McDonald's sacrifice fly.
Halama, who beat the Indians in his previous start, gave up two runs and four hits in six innings.
Notes
Vizquel made his sixth error, bobbling a grounder in the sixth. The nine-time Gold Glove winner had just seven errors in 151 games last year. ... LF Eric Byrnes replaced 2B Mark Ellis in the leadoff spot for Oakland. Ellis, who has been the A's No. 1 hitter 38 times this season, is batting just .164 (10-for-61) in his last 15 games and manager Ken Macha wanted to give him the night off. ... Burks got his 400th career double in the fourth. ... Indians OF Milton Bradley has reached base safely in 27 straight games -- the longest active streak in the majors.
OAKLANDCLEVELAND
abrhbiabrhbi
Byrnes lf4010Lawton lf4111
Httberg 1b3000Vizquel ss3001
EChavz 3b4010Burks dh3010
Tejada ss4100Brdley cf2000
Durazo dh4122Spncer rf4000
Long rf3000Bard c3221
Mnchno 2b3000Blake 3b3010
Gant lf1000Brssrd 1b2000
Snglton cf2000BPhllps 2b0100
RaHrdz c1000JMcDld 2b1001
MLJhn c2000
MEllis 2b0000
Totals31242Totals25454
Oakland000001010--2
Cleveland01001002x--4
E--Long (1), Vizquel (6). LOB--Oakland 11, Cleveland 4. 2B--Durazo (12), Burks (9), Blake (9). HR--Durazo (6), Bard (1). SB--Byrnes 2 (2). CS--Burks (1). S--MLJohnson, Vizquel, JMcDonald. SF--JMcDonald.
IPHRERBBSO
Oakland
Halama642212
Bradford100001
Rincon L,2-3112131
Cleveland
RRodriguez631133
CSadler1-300000
Riske1-300001
Traber000020
Boyd1-300000
Mlhllnd W,1-1111100
DBaez S,8100021
Traber pitched to 2 batters in the 7th. HBP--by CSadler (Singleton). Umpires--Home, Fieldin Culbreth; First, Charlie Reliford; Second, Terry Craft; Third, Marty Foster. T--2:41. A--23,958.