Bullpen Lets Indians Down Once Again

Matt Stairs led off the bottom of the 10th inning with his 18th homer to give the Athletics a 6-5 comeback victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

Stairs hit a 3-and-2 pitch to right field off Steve Karsay (0-1).

The Athletics rallied for two runs against closer Mike Jackson, the second blown save in a row by Jackson.

Bip Roberts tied the score with two out in the ninth when his bloop single to center landed just over the glove of second baseman David Bell, scoring Scott Spiezio.

“I was up there basically with one hand hoping to get the bat on it,” said Roberts, still bothered by a sprained left thumb. “It’s tough enough to hit these pitchers with two hands.”

Jackson blew a save during the Indians’ 17-inning, 9-8 victory at Seattle on Thursday night. But two blown saves do not alarm Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove.

“If you look at that ninth inning today, only one ball was hit real hard. It could have gone either way,” Hargrove said. “He had 17 in row before this, so he’s going to be all right.”

Oakland’s T.J. Mathews (5-4) worked out of a jam in the 10th inning.

The Indians loaded the bases with one out but failed to score when Mathews struck out Travis Fryman and got Sandy Alomar to pop to short.

Indian reliever Steve Reed pitched two scoreless inning and has not given up a run in 17 consecutive outings (22 1/3 innings) with San Francisco and Cleveland. He has pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings for the Indians, giving up only three hits.

Cleveland is 9-3 in West Coast games this season, all the losses coming at Oakland.