Scutaro's single does it for Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Octavio Dotel stumbled in his Oakland debut, then pulled out a victory in what nearly became a most depressing day for the Athletics pitching staff.

Dotel blew a save, starter Rich Harden left early with a shoulder injury, and opening day pitcher Tim Hudson was placed on the disabled list with a strained stomach muscle. Even reliever Justin Ducscherer took a tumble on the mound, numbing up his leg.

Marco Scutaro allowed everyone in the franchise to go home happy, singling in Bobby Kielty for the winning run in the 10th inning as the A's snapped San Francisco's seven-game win streak with an 8-7 victory Saturday night.

Dotel (1-0) blew Oakland's 15th save this year, but pitched 2 2-3 innings for the win.

"It's good that we won. That's the whole key. I didn't save the game, but we won," said Dotel, who woke up at 6:30 a.m. Houston time to travel to the Bay Area but refused to make any excuses. "Tomorrow's another day."

Scutaro, who hit a tiebreaking double in the seventh, connected on a slider from Jim Brower (5-4) with two outs. Scutaro played against Dotel in both Double-A and Triple-A, so he was happy to help him get his first win with Oakland.

Dotel, acquired from Houston in a three-team trade Thursday, entered with one out in the eighth after Jim Mecir allowed two walks and a hit to load the bases. Dotel got Michael Tucker to pop out on the first pitch, then struck out Marquis Grissom.

Dotel walked Barry Bonds leading off the ninth, then allowed a single to Pedro Feliz, and A.J. Pierzynski followed with a three-run homer to pull the Giants within 7-6 -- a shot Dotel considered a "welcome to Oakland." Tucker tied it at 7 with a sacrifice fly.

"He was throwing the ball pretty good in the eighth," Scutaro said. "I'm sure he's going to come back tomorrow and get the job done."

The game attracted a sellout crowd of 55,989, the largest in the majors this season and the most fans ever to attend a baseball game in the Coliseum -- surpassing the 55,861 for the third game of the AL division series Oct. 13, 2001, against the New York Yankees.

Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer and Scott Hatteberg had two singles, an RBI and scored a run for the A's, who had lost five of seven.

Scutaro hit a tiebreaking double to the gap in left-center with one out in the seventh off Giants starter Kirk Rueter, scoring pinch-runner Ramon Castro. Eric Karros doubled to lead off the inning. After Scutaro's hit, Oakland scored two more to go up 6-3 -- on pinch-hitter Mark Kotsay's single and a double by Bobby Crosby.

Harden left in the third after partially dislocating his non-throwing shoulder when he stumbled over the bag trying to cover first base on Ray Durham's chopper.

Harden sustained the same injury during spring training -- from reaching for his alarm clock, he said -- and missed more than a week. He was scheduled for an X-ray Sunday morning and it was unknown whether he would make his next start.

Duchscherer entered in his place. Hatteberg got an error on the play for his wild throw.

Dye hit a 3-2 pitch from Rueter over the wall in right-center with two outs in the first for his 15th homer this year and sixth this month.

The Giants tied the game at 2 on Grissom's two-run double in the third. Then Hatteberg made up for his error with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the third for a 3-2 A's lead.

Duchscherer ran into trouble in the sixth, allowing singles to Deivi Cruz and Dustan Mohr before giving way to Justin Lehr, who was set to earn his first major league win until Dotel blew it. Lehr gave up back-to-back walks to Durham and Tucker, who drew a full-count walk to score Cruz for the tying run. Grissom hit into a fielder's choice for the last out.

Rueter allowed five runs on seven hits in 6 1-3 innings, struck out two and walked one. The Giants had won 11 of 12.

"It was going to end," Giants manager Felipe Alou said of the win streak. "We know we're not going to win, win, win."

Barry Bonds went 1-for-4 with a single and two walks -- one intentional -- and hasn't homered in 12 games, a span of 32 at-bats.

Giants first baseman J.T. Snow returned to the lineup for the first time since May 21 and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, a walk and was also hit by a pitch. He had been sidelined following arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

Game notes
Dye is batting .400 (4-for-10) with two homers lifetime against Rueter, who lost in the Coliseum for the first time in five starts. ... LHP Mark Redman will start Sunday for the A's in place of Tim Hudson, placed on the DL with a strained left side muscle. Redman will pitch on three days' rest for the third time in his career. ... Mohr had three hits and a sacrifice bunt a day after bruising his right shoulder crashing into the wall in left to catch a fly by Dye in the ninth inning.