OAKLAND, Calif., April 26 (UPI) -- The Oakland Athletics took advantage of a fortunate bounce as well as a Cleveland miscue Saturday to down the Indians, 6-3.
Cleveland lost its fifth straight.
With the game tied at 3-3, Scott Hatteberg led off the bottom of the seventh with a single off reliever Terry Mulholland (0-1). Miguel Tejada then hit a ball that bounced into foul territory but kicked back fair in front of the plate.
Catcher Tim Laker could have tagged Tejada, who did not run on the play, but threw wildly to second and Hatteberg advanced to third.
Carl Sadler relieved Mulholland and struck out Eric Chavez, but Erubiel Durzao came through with a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home the go-ahead run.
Mark Ellis and Tejada added RBI singles in the eighth inning and Keith Foulke came on to pitch the ninth for his sixth save.
Oakland starter John Halama, who pitched the first perfect game in the history of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League last season, did not allow a hit for 6 1/3 innings before rookie Brandon Phillips hit a clean single to right field. John McDonald followed with another single.
Ricardo Rincon relieved Halama at that point and walked Omar Vizquel to load the bases. Chad Bradford (2-2) then came in and allowed two runs to score when he dropped a throw from first baseman Hatteberg on pinch-hitter Bill Selby's grounder.
Bradford picked up the win despite the miscue. He did not allow a hit in 1 2/3 innings and struck out one.
Before he left, Halama was far from perfect, as he allowed a run in the third inning on a hit batsman, a walk and an error by Hatteberg. He walked four and struck out four.
