Well-traveled Triggs lifts Athletics past Cardinals

[August 29, 2016]  ST. LOUIS -- Promoted and optioned eight times in the same year, Oakland Athletics pitcher Andrew Triggs earned a reward for his trips between the Bay Area and Nashville, Tenn.

Triggs recorded his first major-league win Sunday after tossing six innings as Oakland knocked off the St. Louis Cardinals 7-4 in Busch Stadium.

Triggs (1-1) allowed three runs on four hits, walked none and fanned a career-high eight. Three relievers took care of the last nine outs, with Ryan Madson pitching the ninth to notch his 27th save in 33 chances.

Jaime Garcia (10-10) was tagged with the loss after going seven innings, yielding five runs and seven hits. Garcia walked one and struck out six.

Oakland (57-73), which was 4-16 in the last 20 games against a left-handed starter, flipped that script pretty fast. Khris Davis got it off to a good start with a two-out, two-run homer in the first, his 34th of the year.

After Stephen Piscotty singled home Matt Carpenter with two outs in St. Louis' half of the first, the A's made it 5-1 in the third. Catcher Stephen Vogt, who delivered the lineup card to the plate in full catching apparel, cracked a three-run homer to right-center for his 11th blast of the season.

Carpenter, who had all but one of the Cardinals' hits off Triggs, boomed a 435-foot homer to center in their half of the third. It was his 17th of the year and marked the 17th consecutive game in which St. Louis went deep.

The Cardinals (68-61) pulled within 5-3 in the sixth when Brandon Moss lofted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Carpenter, who led off with his second double of the game.

Catcher Alberto Rosario drew St. Louis within a run with a two-out RBI double in the seventh, but made the third out trying to take third on the throw home.

Athletics starting pitcher Andrew Triggs (60) pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland plated a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. Danny Valencia's third hit, an RBI double to right, scored Marcus Semien. Reliever Zach Duke butchered Vogt's tapper back to the mound for an error that scored Valencia, giving Vogt his fourth RBI.

The loss dropped the Cardinals' lead for the National League's second wild-card spot to a half-game over surging Pittsburgh, a 3-1 winner in Milwaukee.

NOTES: St. Louis C Yadier Molina received a maintenance day Sunday as Alberto Rosario picked up the start. It was only the 17th game that Molina hasn't started this year. ... Oakland will set a club record Monday no team wants to accomplish - most man-games missed. The Athletics have missed 1,393 man-games as of Sunday, four off the team mark. ... The Cardinals have a club-record four players in August with at least six homers - OF Randal Grichuk, 2B Jedd Gyorko, 1B Brandon Moss and OF Stephen Piscotty.

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