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  Monday, Aug. 21 7:05pm ET
Tigers' Sparks wins fourth straight start
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

DETROIT (AP) -- While few think of knuckleballers as aces, Steve Sparks is the hottest pitcher on the Detroit Tigers these days.

Sparks' knuckleball baffled Oakland for 6 2/3 innings as he won his fourth straight start and led the Tigers over the Athletics 3-1 Monday night.

Brad Ausmus
The Tigers' Brad Ausmus singles home Deivi Cruz in the sixth inning Monday night.

"It's a diversion from what they're used to seeing all the time," Sparks said. "They like to look at the spin on the ball but they can't when the knuckleball's working."

Sparks (4-2) allowed an unearned run on four hits with a season-high seven strikeouts and no walks. His fluttering pitches, none faster than 75 mph, often had the free-swinging A's talking to themselves as they returned to the dugout.

"He struck out a couple of guys with balls that literally dropped 2-2½ feet," Tigers manager Phil Garner said.

Sparks, who pitched his first career shutout Aug. 15 at Seattle, has not allowed an earned run in his last 20 2/3 innings.

"He had great stuff," Oakland's Jeremy Giambi said. "It seems like he has a lot of confidence in his knuckleball and he was making his pitches when he needed to. He threw strikes. He didn't get himself in trouble with walks. He was tough tonight."

Todd Jones pitched the ninth for his AL-leading 35th save in 37 chances, closing out the Tigers' seventh win in their last eight games.

Detroit, which has won seven of its last eight, took three of four from Oakland to move within five games of the A's in the AL wild-card race. Mark Mulder (7-9) fell to 1-8 in his last 10 starts, allowing three runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He gave up three straight two-out hits in the sixth, including an RBI double from Deivi Cruz and Brad Ausmus' run-scoring single, that broke a 1-1 tie.

"I made one big mistake in the sixth inning and that's the game right there," Mulder said. "The one to Cruz, I didn't get on top of the fastball. It came back over the middle. It's just a mistake I can't make. I did and it really cost us the game."

Mulder, who played at Michigan State, is 2-7 in 12 road starts.

"We pitched well enough to win. We didn't hit well enough, simple as that," A's manager Art Howe said. "Mark probably made one mistake, the 0-2 pitch to Cruz. He probably wants that pitch back. But other than that he pitched a really good game for us."

Dean Palmer flared a two-out RBI single to give Detroit a 1-0 lead in the first.

Eric Chavez's third-inning single was the only hit off Sparks until Chavez hit a leadoff double in the sixth and scored from third when Terrence Long grounded into a double play.

It was an unearned run because Chavez had advanced when Frank Menechino struck out but reached on a passed ball by Ausmus.

"It's just disappointing that we did get that run and then go out there and give it back," Mulder said. "Chavy came up big with that double and got us that run to tie the game. To get that run was big and then I gave it right back."

Game notes
Sparks has an AL-best 1.50 ERA in August. ... Mulder's road ERA is 7.35. He entered with an AL-worst 7.59. ... Cruz has five doubles in his last three games. ... The A's are 18-19 since the All-Star break, 7-18 in their last 25 road games and 1-8 in their last eight road series. They ended a seven-game road losing streak Sunday with their lone win in Detroit. ... The A's haven't homered in three straight games, the first time they've done that all season. Ben Grieve hit their only homer of the series in Friday's 10-1 loss.
 


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