By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – The nervousness was palpable in the stands tonight as the A’s were trying to stop their three game skid and win their first game in their last home series of the year.

The A’s scored three times in the second inning and Jon Lester (16-10) went seven innings and struck out seven to lead the A’s (84-69) to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies (70-84).

With the win and a Kansas City loss, the A’s are now back on top of the Wild Card race in the American League.

On the win tonight, Head Coach Bob Melvin said, “We’re at the point right now where a win right now makes you feel good and another loss doesn’t. Hopefully we’re in a good mood tomorrow and score some more runs.”

The A’s crammed all three runs in the second inning on back-to-back-to-back singles by Derek Norris, Eric Sogard and Coco Crisp.

Adam Dunn started off the second by hitting the ball off of Phillies starting pitcher David Buchanan (6-8) and it careened into center field. After a Brandon Moss fly out, a Stephen Vogt walk and a Jed Lowrie strike out the A’s started their singles barrage. The three singles brought in Dunn, Vogt and Norris to give the A’s the 3-0 lead.

“It’s nice to throw a crooked number up there – score more than one run in a inning,” said Melvin on the three run inning. The last time the A’s scored more than three runs in an inning was way back on September 9th in Chicago when they put a 5 spot on the board in the top of the ninth against the White Sox.

Lester had his 18th quality start in a row who over that span has a 1.68 ERA and brought his overall ERA down to 2.42 which is good enough for third best in the American League.

“He’s been terrific. Fortunately you feel like you don’t have to score that many runs for him because he’s going to do his job. Every time out there he’s deep in the game, 110-plus pitches and comes out with the lead. That’s all you can ask from him,” said Melvin.

Closer Sean Doolittle added, “The fire that he has on the mound … he pitches with a lot of emotion, and I think guys pick up on that, feed off that. They want to make the play behind him. They see how committed to his job he is out there.”

Doolittle who came in tonight for his 22nd save of the year was coming off one of his worst performances the other day when he gave up 5 runs in the top of ninth to the Rangers.

“We all know how good Doo is, and we’re all human, we’re all going to have bad outings, bad innings, bad at-bats, and what happened the other day is obviously an anomaly, and for him to go out there tonight and do what he did was him getting back to being him,” said Jon Lester on the A’s closer.

In the top of the eighth there was a critical play when the Phillies had a runner on third and the ball got bounced to Josh Donaldson. Donaldson was able to corral the ball and launch it to home to get Freddy Galvis out at the plate and keep the score 3-1.

“It was a big play. He had to make sure he could get him and he’s got great instincts. It’s a shot in the arm when that run doesn’t score because the difference between a one run lead and a two run lead is one swing of the bat,” beamed Melvin on his third baseman’s play.

Donaldson summed it up best with this; “Every win right now is big for this team. Every win is important. It gets the momentum going on the right track, and hopefully we can build on this thing tomorrow and the rest of the year.”

The A’s look to build on tonight’s win when they head back it tomorrow afternoon when the Phillies send Jerome Williams (3-2, 2.84 ERA) against Drew Pomeranz (5-4, 2.53 ERA), game time 1:05pm PST.