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PITTSBURGH — The Oakland Athletics have some of the best arms in baseball, and not all belong to their pitching staff. 

The Athletics continued to roll by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 Tuesday night in the first meeting between two of baseball’s oldest franchises, largely because four relievers combined for 2 2-3 scoreless innings. 

Still, the most impressive throwing in the late innings might have been by catcher Ramon Hernandez, who shut down two Pittsburgh scoring chances by throwing out runners trying to steal. 

“That was big,” Oakland manager Art Howe said after Hernandez’s defense — and the catcher’s solo homer — helped the Athletics win their 10th in 11 games. 

With the Athletics trying to keep their two-run lead, reliever Chad Bradford started the eighth by hitting Abraham Nunez with a pitch. Contact hitter Jason Kendall was up next, so Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon called for a hit and run. 

But Kendall couldn’t get the bat on the ball, allowing Hernandez to easily throw out Nunez for the first out of the inning. Hernandez had ended the seventh by throwing out Adrian Brown trying to steal with two outs and Chad Hermansen batting. 

“If we can get the hit-and-run down, we probably get a big inning going,” McClendon said. “But if it doesn’t work, I look stupid — and tonight I looked stupid.” 

McClendon has repeatedly tried to prop up one of the NL’s weakest offenses with an aggressive running game, but the Pirates have repeatedly run themselves out of scoring chances. They have had 31 runners thrown out in 76 steal attempts. 

This time, the Pirates knew they were gambling by running on Hernandez, who has thrown out seven of the last 14 runners who tried to steal on him. 

That’s the kind of solid defense, combined with the Athletics’ ever-improving starting pitching, that has helped them win 14 of 17 and 18 of 23 since they were five games under .500. Their starters are 13-3 in their last 22 starts. 

“This is what we’ve been doing,” Howe said. “We’ve been pitching well and getting key hits, and that’s been the combination for us. The pitching has been the biggest part of it.” 

Mark Mulder (7-4) won his fifth consecutive start, limiting the Pirates to two runs and five hits over 6 1-3 innings before being lifted with one on and one out in the seventh. 

Howe used four relievers to finish up, with Billy Koch pitching the ninth for his 16th save in 20 opportunities. 

“I hated facing these pitchers,” said Scott Hatteberg, who signed with Oakland after playing for Boston. “As a hitter, it’s such a grind. It’s a real inferior feeling when you can’t do anything. I look over and see that on the other hitters now, and it’s nice to be on this side of it.” 

The 101-year-old Athletics and 115-year-old Pirates had never met in the regular season or postseason despite a combined 21 World Series appearances, and Oakland quickly made up for lost time. 

The Athletics jumped on Pittsburgh starter Josh Fogg (7-5) for four singles and a walk, keyed by Jermaine Dye’s two-run single, in the first. Hatteberg added an RBI double in the second. 

Hernandez then hit his fourth homer of the season leading off the fourth following a 48-minute rain delay. Fogg has allowed at least one homer in each of his last eight starts. 

Kevin Young made it 4-2 with a solo homer off Mulder in the seventh, the Pirates’ only scoring in the final eight innings. 

Oakland trailed Seattle by 10 games in the AL West less than three weeks ago, but stayed four games back as the Mariners beat Cincinnati 8-1. 

Notes: Howe will attend the reunion of Shaler High School’s 1964 Pennsylvania state championship baseball team while in Pittsburgh this week. He later signed with the Pirates and made his major league debut with them in 1974. ... Oakland’s interleague record of 9-1 this season and 59-37 overall are the best in the majors.