 was the beneficiary of some much-needed offense and ended a streak of five starts without a victory. He had pitched well in most of those games but hadn't gotten enough help from his lineup to win. The left-hander struck out seven and walked one.Mark Canha homered for Oakland but Sean Manaea (5-5) struggled for a fifth consecutive start, sending the A's to their sixth loss in seven home games.Manaea fell into a 1-0 hole just two batters into the game when Ahmed hit his seventh homer of the season, topping his total from a year ago.A leadoff walk to No. 9 hitter Jeff Mathis sparked a rally in the third by Arizona, with Murphy hitting a two-run double to make it 3-0.Ahmed then added an RBI single in the fourth before Goldschmidt's two-run triple on a sinking liner that got by a diving Chad Pinder in left field made it 6-1 and ended Manaea's night.Manaea allowed six runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings, his fifth start in a row with at least four runs allowed. Manaea gave up just five runs total in his first six starts, winning the award as the AL's top pitcher in April.TRAINER'S ROOMDiamondbacks: RHP Shelby Miller (elbow) threw a bullpen and is set for his first rehab start next week at Class A Visalia. He is expected to throw up to 75 pitches in that start. Manager Torey Lovullo said Miller will need at least two starts in the minors before being ready to return. ... OF Steven Souza Jr., who went on the DL this week with a strained right pectoral muscle, has not yet been cleared for baseball activity.Athletics: RHP Santiago Casilla left with an undisclosed injury in the eighth. Casilla retired the first two batters he faced before hurting himself on a pitch to Ahmed that brought out the trainer. After a brief consultation, Casilla left the game.DROUGHT ENDEDCanha's homer ended a streak of seven straight home games without a long ball for the A's, tying an Oakland record. The A's entered the day with the fewest homers at home with 14 in 23 games and the most on the road with 47 in 27 contests.UP NEXTClay Buchholz (0-0) makes his second start for the Diamondbacks in the middle game of the series against Daniel Mengden (4-4).---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Diamondbacks, Athletics ready to meet in Oakland 2h ago• 2 min read OAKLAND, Calif. -- Two left-handers making early runs at their respective All-Star teams go head-to-head Friday night when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland Athletics open a three-game interleague series at the American League site.Patrick Corbin, who has never faced the A's, and Sean Manaea, who has never seen the Diamondbacks, are set to duel in the clubs' first meeting since 2015.The Diamondbacks have dominated the interleague series of late, having won five of the six head-to-heads since 2012, with all those games having been played at Arizona.The teams are meeting in Oakland for the first time since 2011.No doubt, the Diamondbacks are happy to try something different. They have a winning record (5-4) in interleague play this season, well before they've gone on a skid that resulted in seven straight losses and 13 of 14 setbacks.A team that was once six games up in the National League West suddenly can be as little as a loss away from second place.Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo hinted that something might be different about the team's look in Oakland after a much-needed day off Thursday. That could start as early as turning batting practice into a pregame Home Run Derby."Do something that's a little bit off, a little bit different, to distract us," he noted.Or maybe something a little bigger in an effort to shake up an offense that's scored no more than four runs in any of their last 14 outings."We may pick the lineup out of a hat or something crazy," he mentioned. "We might have some fun. I might turn some things around lineup-wise. We try to keep it loose here." Nothing needs to change about Corbin (4-1, 2.60), who has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his 10 starts.He will be facing an A's offense that on this homestand has resembled that of the Diamondbacks a bit. Oakland was held to six runs on 15 hits over three games the past three days against Seattle, losing two of three.Oakland played the series without slugger Khris Davis, who has gone on the disabled list after suffering a strained groin Sunday in Toronto.Fortunately for the A's, Manaea (5-4, 2.71) often hasn't needed a whole lot of offensive support. He allowed just six runs in six starts in March/April, before slipping a bit to 12 runs in four starts so far in May.Unlike the Diamondbacks, the A's ride a bit of momentum into the series. They scorched nemesis Felix Hernandez for four first-inning runs Thursday afternoon, then made them hold up for a 4-3 win that salvaged one win in the three-game series.The A's were outhit 10-5 in the game, but turned five double plays, including one apiece in each of the three innings in which the Mariners scored, short-circuiting potential big uprisings.It's been an unseasonably chilly spring in Oakland, something that some A's credited for contributing to the low-scoring series against the Mariners."Just chalk it up to the Coliseum being the Coliseum," observed A's outfielder Chad Pinder, who went 0-for-5 in the series with four strikeouts, "and hope the weather warms up here soon." Possible daytime showers and an overcast night with game-time temperature around 60 degrees is the forecast for Friday.
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