Fiers wins fifth with A's, beats Orioles 3-2

Matt Chapman, Khris Davis and Stephen Piscotty each drove in a run as the Oakland A's defeated the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 Tuesday night at Camden Yards in the opener of their three-game series.

The A's now have won five straight games as they remain in the hunt for first place in the American League West and 8 games up in the quest for the second wild card.

Baltimore has dropped five straight games.

The Orioles could not do much against Oakland starter Mike Fiers. He went six innings and allowed one run on four hits. Fiers also struck out seven with just one walk.

The right-hander improved to 5-0 in seven starts since the A's acquired him in an August trade with the Tigers. Overall this season, Fiers is 12-6.

Jeurys Familia later closed it in the ninth for his first save with Oakland and 18th this year - the other 17 came with the Mets.

Oakland took charge with a three-run third inning against Mike Wright (3-2). The big right-hander came in to replace Baltimore starter Alex Cobb, who left after two scoreless innings. He came out apparently because of a recurring blister problem on one of his fingers.

This is something that's been a longtime issue for Cobb, and it popped up again in the game. Wright entered in the third and walked leadoff hitter Jonathan Lucroy, who scored one out later on a Chapman double.

Wright then walked Jed Lowrie before Davis (2-for-4) singled in Chapman for a 2-0 lead. Piscotty (3-for-4) later drove in Lowrie with a single that made it 3-0.

Wright settled down after that and threw two scoreless innings to keep the Orioles close.

Baltimore cut the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Jonathan Villar homered off Fiers. Villar struck again in the eighth with an RBI single that made it 3-2.

The Orioles had a chance to tie it in the eighth after Villar's hit but center fielder Ramon Laureano made a diving catch of a Trey Mancini line drive. That ended the inning and let Oakland hold on.

--Field Level Media