Oakland breaks out bats to end three-game skid

A's 12, Devil Rays 5

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Oakland's struggling offense produced more runs in two innings than it had in the previous four games combined.

That made for a happy Dan Haren, who watched the Athletics score their most runs in one of his outings since August on the way to a 12-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Saturday that ended a three-game skid.

Travis Buck hit a three-run homer in the A's six-run first, Eric Chavez also hit a three-run shot and Mark Ellis added his first homer of the year. Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson each drove in two runs.

Haren struck out a season-high seven and didn't walk a batter in 7 1-3 innings to win his third straight start.

Finally breaking out of their collective funk at the plate had to be encouraging for the beat-up A's, who have looked little like the defending AL West champions in another slow April start hindered by injuries. While Oakland's starting pitching has been superb, there has been little margin for error because of the team's scoring troubles.

The runs were the second-most of the season for the A's behind a 16-4 showing April 20 at Texas and marked just the second time the club has scored 10 or more.

B.J. Upton hit a solo home run in the second on one of few mistake pitches by Haren (3-2) and Upton also doubled in the fifth and scored again, but Tampa Bay managed little else with its bats a day after the Devil Rays snapped an 11-game losing streak in the Pacific Time Zone with 4-1 win. Upton went 3-for-4.

Jonny Gomes hit an RBI double in the eighth against Haren, who hadn't been part of a game with this much offense since a 12-10 victory against Toronto on Aug. 21. Haren then struck out Carl Crawford before he was relieved by Justin Duchscherer.

Casey Fossum (2-2), coming off back-to-back wins over Baltimore and the New York Yankees, got in trouble in a hurry. He was tagged for a season-high nine runs in five innings. The left-hander gave up six or more earned runs for the third time in five starts, allowed nine hits, struck out five and walked three.

Pitching coach Jim Hickey paid him a visit in the first after a two-out walk to Mike Piazza followed by Crosby's RBI single and a two-run single from Johnson. Piazza and Crosby advanced on left fielder Crawford's wild throw past Upton at second that traveled all the way to the visiting bullpen area.

Ellis followed Johnson's single with a base hit, then Buck sent the first pitch from Fossum over the left-field fence for the rookie's second homer.

Bobby Kielty briefly returned to the A's lineup to play left field after sitting out in recent days with a strained left calf, but was replaced by Danny Putnam in the top of the third. Kielty apparently had problems on the bases in the second after singling to get aboard. Trainer Larry Davis and manager Bob Geren came out to check on him at third before he scored on Piazza's hit.

Game notes
Fossum plunked Ellis in the second, the 44th hit batsman by the lefty since the start of the 2004 season. ... Crawford's error followed by SS Ben Zobrist's fielding miscue in the second gave Tampa Bay 21 errors in its last 18 games. The Devil Rays committed only one in their initial six contests. ... The A's sent RHP Marcus McBeth to the Cincinnati Reds as one of the two players to be named later in Friday's trade that brought OF Chris Denorfia to Oakland. ... The previous 10 games between the clubs had been decided by three or fewer runs.