Koch Gives A’s Relief

Billy Koch needed only 12 pitches to redeem himself after a shaky outing.

Koch pitched a perfect ninth inning to reach 30 saves for the fourth consecutive season as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2, Wednesday afternoon at Oakland.

Eric Chavez hit a three-run homer, and Jermaine Dye drove in a run for the A’s, who have won two straight after losing their last five to the Blue Jays. The A’s have won 10 of 15 overall.

Shannon Stewart homered for the Blue Jays, who have lost six of eight.

Koch, whom the A’s acquired from Toronto during the off-season, walked the first two batters he faced and allowed a run on Tuesday before nailing down his 29th save.

“Any 1-2-3 outing feels great,” Koch said. “Pitching effectively, that’s the biggest thing. It was great to do that and not have [A’s Manager Art Howe] have to pull his hair out. I never set a number on how many saves I want to get because that feels like a limitation. I just want to do my job.”

Said Howe: “That was vintage Billy Koch. He went right after them.”

Tim Hudson (9-9) won his second consecutive decision and evened his record for the first time since he was 3-3 on May 4. He gave up two runs--one earned--and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Hudson has a .690 career winning percentage in the major leagues, but he hadn’t won consecutive decisions since June 30 and July 12.

“It seems like, still, when I make mistakes they hit them,” Hudson said. “It also seems like I’m not making as many mistakes and when I got into those situations, I was able to get the ground balls.”

Pete Walker (5-3) gave up four hits and four walks in six innings but didn’t give up a hit after Miguel Tejada’s single in the third. Walker retired 12 of his final 14 batters.

“I just keep throwing too many pitches,” Walker said. “When I find my stuff, it’s always too late. Chavez won the game for them in the first inning.”

Chavez hit his 26th homer of the season in the first inning following Scott Hatteberg’s single and Tejada’s walk.