Kaprielian shines for A’s in victory

Oakland closes homestand on a positive note with win

OAKLAND >> James Kaprielian threw six shutout innings and Matt Olson hit his 25th home run of the season to help lift the A’s to a 6-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, completing a much-needed two-game sweep at the Coliseum.

Kaprielian allowed five hits and struck out seven as he improved to 5-3 this season, allowing the A’s to finish their five-game homestand on a positive note.

Olson’s home run, his second in two days, came in the fourth inning on a 3-2 curveball from Angels starter José Suarez and had just enough to clear the right-field fence.

The A’s gave themselves some insurance with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, as Jed

Lowrie had a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and Ramon Laureano doubled to score Mark Canha and Olson for a 4-0 A’s lead.

The A’s added two more in the seventh inning with RBI singles from Elvis Andrus and Olson, who scored two runs and drove in two as the A’s improved to 9-3 against the Angels this season.

Angels manager Joe Maddon was ejected in the bottom of the eighth inning for reasons that were not immediately clear. In any case, it was a rough day for the umpires, who had three of their calls overturned via video replay.

The A’s finished their homestand with a 3-2 record to improve to 30-24 at home after they lost two of three to the Cleveland Indians last week.

Oakland now begins what could be a critical 10game road trip that lasts until Aug. 1, two days after the MLB trade deadline.

The A’s, starting Thursday, play four games in Seattle against the Mariners, the team that’s directly behind them in the American League Wild Card standings. Oakland entered Tuesday three games ahead of Seattle for the final AL playoff spot.

Oakland then faces San Diego on July 27 and 28 then finishes the trip with four games against the Angels.

The A’s sixth-inning rally Tuesday started with Jacob Wilson’s first Major League hit, as he singled off Suarez.

Wilson, a 10th-round draft choice by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, played in his first big league game on July 10 with the A’s playing the Rangers in Arlington.

Wilson started in left field the following day and went 0-for-2.

Wilson hit eighth in the lineup Tuesday as he started at second base. Manager Bob Melvin said using Wilson at second allowed him to drop Tony Kemp into the game at point or another, depending on the situation. Kemp pinch-ran for Wilson in the sixth.

Wilson was 0-for-3 before Tuesday but was hitting .288 with a 1.013 OPS

in 49 games with Triple-A Las Vegas this season.

Kaprielian has now allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his 12 starts this season. He entered Tuesday with a 2.90 ERA, second-lowest in the AL among rookies with 45 or more innings.

Kaprielian has also allowed six hits or fewer in each of his 12 starts and prior to Tuesday, held the opposition to a .200 (45-for225) batting average.