By Morris Phillips

 

If they don’t hit—or catch the ball—the American League’s hottest team can cool off pretty fast. Just reference the Oakland A’s, who have dropped a season-high three straight after a 5-2 loss in Toronto on Saturday.

The A’s maintained their 2 ½ game lead in the AL West as the Angels lost at home to the Royals, 7-4 in 13 innings.

Yoenis Cespedes got Oakland off to a fast start with a drive over the centerfield wall in the second inning off of R.A. Dickey. But the Toronto starter would settle in to his best start of the season after that.  Dickey pitched into the ninth inning, allowing just five hits and the one run on Cespedes’ homer.

Meanwhile, Jesse Chavez was pitching similarly, but couldn’t get assistance from the defense behind him. Left fielder Craig Gentry’s inability to pick Melky Cabrera’s single cleanly allowed speedy Anthony Gose to score all the way from first base and tie the game in the third inning.

In the fifth, and after Brett Lawrie had given the Blue Jays a lead with a solo homer, A’s first baseman Brandon Moss couldn’t field Cabrera’s grounder cleanly and that allowed Gose and Jose Reyes to race around the bases, giving Toronto a 4-1 lead.

The roof was open at the Rogers Centre in Toronto for the first time this season and A’s players felt the heat on the turf created a livelier bounces on ground balls. The two errors matched the number of miscues the A’s had suffered in their previous 11 games, but they were costly on a day that the offense couldn’t solve the conundrum of Dickey’s knuckler.

The A’s managed to mount a rally in the ninth that finally forced Dickey from the game. But closer Brett Cecil came on with the bases loaded, and after allowing a run-scoring sacrifice fly to Jed Lowrie, struck out Alberto Callaspo to end the game.

The A’s have dropped three straight after winning the first five games of their road trip through Cleveland, Tampa and Toronto. The offense has disappeared for the AL’s highest scoring team as the A’s have scored just 12 runs in the last five games.

The Blue Jays have won five straight and 15 of 20 by relying heavily on the long ball. Lawrie’s solo shot marked the seventh straight game that the Jays have hit at least one round tripper and they lead the Major Leagues with 37 home runs in May.

The A’s look to avoid a sweep on Sunday as Drew Pomeranz gets the start opposite J.A. Happ for Toronto.