Defensive Miscues Hurt Athletics In 4-2 Loss To Jays

TORONTO (AP) Matched up against the hottest team in baseball, one inning of bad defense turned into big trouble for the Oakland Athletics.

Jose Bautista hit a solo home run, Drew Hutchison pitched seven strong innings and the streaking Toronto Blue Jays took advantage of two Oakland errors to win their ninth straight game, 4-2 over the Athletics.

Toronto scored three times in Oakland's sloppy second inning, which saw a throwing error, a fielding error, and a ball that bounced over the head of outfielder Coco Crisp.

"That might be the worst inning we've played this year," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "All the way around, we basically gave them the whole inning. It should have been a different game if we played any kind of defense that inning."

Oakland was off Monday after winning the previous three days, but the rest didn't seem to do much good.

"We had a day off," Melvin fumed. "It looked like we had about five off in the first couple innings."

It's the first time in Blue Jays history the team has recorded two nine-game winning streaks in a season. Toronto won a season-high 11 straight in June.

Blue Jays starting pitchers have held the opposition to three earned runs or fewer in 15 consecutive games.

Hutchison (11-2) allowed two runs and four hits in seven-plus innings. The right-hander hadn't completed seven innings since a complete-game victory over the Chicago White Sox on May 25.

Oakland's Marcus Semien said Hutchison "got quick outs when he needed to" against the last-place Athletics.

"I had one at-bat where I got 0-2 pretty quick and it seemed like he had the ability to do that all night," Semien said.

Hutchison is 9-1 with a 2.68 ERA in 12 home starts and 2-1 with a 9.00 ERA in 11 road outings.

After the first two Oakland batters singled in the third, Hutchison got Crisp to ground into a double play, starting a streak in which he set down 14 of 15.

"It's pretty fun to watch when he gets like that," Toronto's Chris Colabello said of Hutchison. "He was pretty impressive today."

Hutchison left to a standing ovation after Semien's infield single to begin the eighth inning. Aaron Sanchez came on and surrendered an RBI single to Billy Burns but escaped by striking out Crisp looking and getting Josh Reddick on a comebacker.

Roberto Osuna finished for his 11th save.

The Blue Jays thought they had turned a double play to end the top of the first but a replay challenge showed Reddick beat out shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's relay throw. Former Toronto infielder Danny Valencia followed with an RBI double past a diving Kevin Pillar in center, giving the Athletics a 1-0 lead.

Oakland's run snapped a stretch of 26 consecutive scoreless innings by Blue Jays pitchers, a streak that began in the third inning of Friday's 10-inning victory over the New York Yankees.

It also marked the first time Toronto had trailed since the second inning of their Aug. 5 game against Minnesota, a 44-inning stretch.

Oakland wasn't in front for long. Colabello opened the Blue Jays second with a double that bounced over Crisp's head for a double, then scored on a throwing error by Semien, the shortstop's major league-leading 30th.

"As I caught it I was bobbling the ball and never really got a good grip," Semien said. "Right now I'm just taking this one kind of hard."

Justin Smoak followed with an RBI double, Pillar reached on Eric Sogard's fielding error and Ryan Goins made it 3-1 with a grounder.

Bautista made it 4-1 with a two-out homer into the second deck in the fifth, his 27th. Toronto has homered in 10 consecutive games and 22 of 23 since the All-Star break.

Oakland right-hander Kendall Graveman (6-8) allowed four runs, two earned, and five hits in 4 2-3 innings. Graveman is winless in six starts.

"That was a bad fate for Kendall," Melvin said. "Kendall pitched a lot better than what he ended up getting."

DANNY DELIVERING

Valencia has gone 8 for 20 with two home runs and six RBIs in five games since joining Oakland.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Athletics: DH Billy Butler was not in the starting lineup for the third straight game.

Blue Jays: 1B Edwin Encarnacion (left middle finger) sat out his second straight game. He is day to day.

UP NEXT

Athletics: RHP Aaron Brooks (1-0, 2.41 ERA) will make his third start for Oakland since being acquired in a trade with Kansas City. He's 1-0 with a 1.26 ERA in two starts with the Athletics.

Blue Jays: RHP R.A. Dickey (6-10, 3.93 ERA) will move up a day to start Wednesday, pushing Mark Buehrle back a day and giving the veteran left-hander six days off between starts. Toronto is 4-0 in Dickey's past four starts, and he's lowered his ERA by .60 in that span.

Updated August 11, 2015