Stairs’ Homer Beats Giants, 7-6

The Giants, hoping to get their first sweep in interleague play, lost in the ninth inning when Oakland’s Matt Stairs, battling the odds and the notorious San Francisco Bay winds, hit a solo home run to give the A’s a 7-6 victory before 40,154.

Going into the game, Oakland had not scored in 20 innings against the Giants, who beat the A’s, 4-3, in 15 innings Friday night, then blanked them Saturday, 8-0.

Before Stairs came up in the ninth, he watched teammate Jason Giambi’s would-be home run get knocked back by the wind and caught in center field.

“It was crushed,” Stairs said. “I said, ‘If he can’t hit a home run, there’s no way I can hit one.’ ”

But Stairs’ hit defied logic, barely clearing the left-field fence.

Stairs, who earlier hit a bases-loaded double, connected off John Johnstone (4-3) for his 13th home run of the season.

“He hit that ball good,” said F.P. Santangelo, who homered for the Giants in the seventh. “Sometimes when you hit the ball into the wind, it stays up a little longer. That’s what it did. It rode the wind.”

With the win, the A’s ended a three-game losing streak and an eight-game road losing streak.

“We didn’t get swept, which was huge,” Stairs said. “We didn’t want to come over here and get swept.”

With the A’s ahead, 6-5, going into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Giants’ Scott Servais singled, took second on Wilson Delgado’s sacrifice and scored the tying run on pinch-hitter Bill Mueller’s double to deep right off Doug Jones.

Buddy Groom (2-0) faced just one batter in the eighth and got the win. Billy Taylor pitched the ninth for his 14th save.