A.J. Griffin earns 10th win for Athletics with plenty of support to beat Blue Jays

OAKLAND, Calif. — Yoenis Cespedes homered and hit a two-run triple, Josh Reddick added a two-run double and had three RBIs, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 on Monday night.

Jed Lowrie singled home a run and Josh Reddick hit a sacrifice fly in Oakland's four-run first inning. Cespedes led off the eighth with his 16th home run, snapping a career-high 25-game homerless streak for the Home Run Derby champion.

Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer, while Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie each hit solo shots against A.J. Griffin (10-7), who retired the first 13 batters of the game before Lind's one-out drive in the fifth.

Lawrie homered leading off the sixth, and Encarnacion connected for his 29th of the year four batters later.

The shaggy-haired Griffin, who went 7-1 last year as a rookie, gave up four runs and four hits, struck out five and walked two in seven innings to win for the fifth time in his last six decisions. He was through four perfect innings on 42 pitches.

The AL West-leading A's (63-43) won their fourth straight and seventh in nine to move a season-best 20 games over .500, tied for best record in the AL with Tampa Bay. They have some momentum after taking three of four from the division rival Los Angeles Angels at the Coliseum, where Oakland has won 24 of its last 30 home games.

Toronto, last in the AL East, had its six-game road winning streak against the AL West end.

Seth Smith snapped an 0-for-30 funk with an RBI double in the third. Donaldson matched his career-high hitless stretch of 17 at-bats when he grounded out in the third, then he singled in the fifth to snap it.

Reddick hit a first-inning sacrifice fly, then doubled in two runs in the fifth. Stephen Vogt contributed an RBI single later that inning.

After a long first inning, Esmil Rogers (3-5) didn't make it out of the fifth in his first career start against the A's. He was tagged for eight runs — six earned — on nine hits in 4 1-3 innings. But the right-hander didn't record his first out until the 24th pitch he threw, and needed 35 in all to get out of the first already in a 4-0 hole.