Dodgers bullpen can't hold it, A's win in 10

OAKLAND -- Back-to-back doubles by Mark Canha and Biily Butler in the 10th inning gave the Athletics a 5-4 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night in Oakland, two innings after the A's mounted a furious comeback to tie.

Oakland scored three runs in the eighth inning to tie the score, a mere minutes after the Dodgers took a three-run lead. Pedro Baez took his turn in the barrel on Tuesday, allowing a single and two doubles, and all three runners scored.

Patience a virtue

A.J. Ellis saw 17 total pitches in his first three times up, all walks on Tuesday night. But in his fourth time up, with two runners on and two outs in the eighth inning, Ellis hit the first pitch from Fernando Rodriguez over the wall in left center field for a three-run home run and a brief 4-1 Dodgers advantage that didn't last through the next half inning.

Ellis also walked in the 10th on eight pitches, his fourth walk of the game. It tied a career high for Ellis, who walked four times in a game twice in 2012.

Angry but effective

Clayton Kershaw was angry early, and in an unusually outward manner. After allowing a run in the second inning in a rally that included a sacrifice bunt and a ground out, Kershaw in the third inning thought he had strike three on Danny Valencia with two outs.

But home plate umpire Todd Tichenor disagreed, and when Kershaw then failed to cleanly field Valencia's ground ball down the third base line, Kershaw after time was called slammed the ball into the grass, then picked it up and fired it on a bounce toward the Dodgers first-base dugout, almost Roger Clemens-style.

"I was fired up for some reason. It was just a weird night," Kershaw said. "Nothing really out of the ordinary, I was just fired up."

Then to open the fourth inning Mark Canha with an 0-2 count was granted time out by Tichenor just as Kershaw was going into his motion toward the plate.

"[Canha] was in the box, and that's why I threw it," Kershaw said. "I said, 'He was in the box,' and [Tichenor] said, 'He had time.'"

The tension was so thick that Ellis had to step in and play the dual roles of peacemaker and arguer by proxy.

"It was just the normal back and forth between an umpire, a pitcher and a catcher. As the middle man it's my job to be peacekeeper. If he's going to yell at anybody, he's not going to yell at my pitcher, ever," Ellis said. "Donnie came out and diffused the situation."

But anger aside, Kershaw had a very effective night, allowing just the one run on five hits and two walks in his seven innings. He also struck out seven, giving Kershaw 212 on the season, enough to reclaim the major league lead in strikeouts, by four over White Sox ace Chris Sale.

The wild side

A's starter Felix Doubront walked six batters, matching Rockies left-hander Jorge De La Rosa (May 10) for the most walks against the Dodgers this season, but Los Angeles was only able to push across one unearned run in six innings against him, and that was helped by a passed ball.

That was thanks to Doubront striking out eight and allowing only one hit, a single by Adrian Gonzalez in the second inning. The Dodgers with runners on base against Doubront were 0-for-13 with two walks and six strikeouts.

Tuesday particulars

Home run: A.J. Ellis (3)

WP - Fernando Abad (2-2): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

LP - Yimi Garcia (3-3): 1+ IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout