Athletics vs. Tigers ALDS Game 3 Final Score: A’s take control of series with 6-3 win

The A’s now lead the Tigers 2-1 in the ALDS.

by Alex Hall

Oct 7, 2013, 9:01 PM UTC

Oakland flexed their muscles in a 6-3 victory over Detroit on Monday.

Leon Halip

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The Oakland Athletics hit three home runs off of Detroit Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez to secure a 6-3 victory in Game 3 on Monday. With the win, the A's took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five ALDS against the Tigers. Jarrod Parker threw five innings to record the win for Oakland, and Sanchez took the loss. Sanchez allowed only nine home runs in 182 innings in the regular season before allowing three in this game.

Oakland scored the first run of the day with some help from Detroit's defense. Coco Crisp reached on a single to center and then stole second base. Three batters later, with two outs in the inning, Yoenis Cespedes hit a ground ball straight at Miguel Cabrera. However, Cabrera failed to get his body in front of the ball and let it clank off of his glove into left field for a run-scoring error.

The A's came right back out in the fourth inning. Josh Reddick led off the frame with a home run to right field, and Game 2 hero Stephen Vogt followed that with a triple off the wall in right. After Eric Sogard failed to knock Vogt in from third, Crisp lofted a fly ball to left field which was just deep enough to plate the runner ahead of Jhonny Peralta's throw. That run pushed the score to 3-0 Oakland.

After retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced, Jarrod Parker hit a bump in the road in the fourth inning. Torii Hunter led off with a single and moved to third on a one-out single by Prince Fielder. Victor Martinez followed by smoking a double past a diving Brandon Moss and down the right-field line, which scored Hunter for Detroit's first run. Peralta capped the comeback by lining a single to left, scoring both runners to tie the game.

But just as the momentum seemed to be shifting toward the Tigers, Oakland grabbed it right back. With one out in the fifth, Moss did this:

via @gifdsports

... and, two batters later, with Cespedes on base via a single, Seth Smith did this:

And just like that, the A’s were back on top by a score of 6-3.

Things quieted down from there. Detroit managed just two singles and two walks in four innings against Dan Otero, Sean Doolittle, and Grant Balfour, and Oakland held on for the victory. There was a bit of a hullabaloo in the ninth inning, as Victor Martinez and Balfour got into a shouting match, and now all of the children who watched MLB Network's broadcast of the game know a cool new four-letter word. The benches cleared during the fracas, but things settled down quickly and Martinez lined out on the next pitch.

The Athletics will try to put away the series on Tuesday, with an eye on their first ALCS appearance since 2006. Dan Straily faces Doug Fister, with the first pitch scheduled for 5:07 p.m. ET.