Rival watch- A's beat Tigers, Indians now 2 GB for Wild Card, 5.5 out of 1st in AL Central

Published Aug. 26, 2013 11:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

DETROIT (AP) -- Coco Crisp and Daric Barton each drove in two runs, and the Oakland Athletics beat Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers 8-6 on Monday night.
Cabrera hit his 43rd homer, bolstering his pursuit of another Triple Crown, but Barton had a tiebreaking RBI single in Oakland's two-run sixth inning. Crisp also had a solo homer during his three-hit performance.
A.J. Griffin (11-9) earned his first win since July 29 despite allowing four runs and seven hits in five-plus innings. The right-hander was 0-2 with a 3.47 ERA in his previous four starts.

Omar Infante and Victor Martinez also homered for the AL Central-leading Tigers, who had won three in a row. Martinez went 4 for 5 and Torii Hunter had two hits.
Cabrera went deep in the fifth, sending a 3-1 pitch from Griffin over the wall in right for a two-run shot that tied it at 4. He leads the AL with a .359 batting average and 130 RBIs, but he trailed Baltimore slugger Chris Davis for the home run lead by three.
Oakland responded in the sixth, jumping all over reliever Jose Alvarez (1-4). Barton, who was called up from Triple-A Sacramento earlier in the day, had the last of three consecutive singles to open the inning, driving in Nate Freiman. Crisp added an RBI single.
Alberto Callaspo added a run-scoring single against Al Alburquerque in the seventh and Jed Lowrie's RBI double in the eighth made it 8-4.