Page One

OAKLAND – Cory Lidle teamed with three Oakland relievers on a one-hitter, and Miguel Tejada hit a three-run homer Sunday as the Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers 4-0. 

Lidle (4-9) retired Detroit’s first 15 batters before Wendell Magee’s line-drive single to lead off the sixth. He faced just 22 hitters in seven innings, striking out six and getting double-play grounders to kill the Tigers’ only scoring chances. 

Tejada extended his hitting streak to 24 games — the second-longest in the majors this season behind Luis Castillo’s 35-gamer for Florida — with his third-inning blast against Mike Maroth (3-4). 

It was all the offense required by Lidle, whose up-and-down season reached another high point with an overwhelming performance. Sixteen days earlier at the Coliseum, Lidle threw an overpowering one-hitter against Texas that was the first shutout of his career. 

Oakland’s relievers were just as sharp as Lidle. Ricardo Rincon and Chad Bradford combined to strike out the side in the eighth, and Billy Koch pitched the ninth. 

Jermaine Dye had an RBI single in the eighth as the A’s won for the fourth time in five games leading up to a key road trip to Boston and New York. The weary Tigers finished a 10-game road trip by losing three of four at Oakland. 

Magee ended Lidle’s perfection with a full-count single to left. On the next pitch, however, Chris Truby grounded to Mark Ellis for an easy double play. 

Lidle got into his only trouble in the seventh, walking Damian Jackson and Shane Halter, but he struck out Bobby Higginson and got Randall Simon to ground into an inning-ending double play on a 3-0 pitch. 

Maroth was nearly as effective as Lidle, allowing four hits and striking out six. But Maroth walked four batters, and he threw one bad pitch to the hottest hitter in the AL. 

In the third, Ramon Hernandez singled and Scott Hatteberg walked before Tejada launched Maroth’s first pitch onto the barbecue platform in left field for his 25th homer. 

Tejada’s 24-game streak, which began at the All-Star break, is the second-longest in Oakland history, tying Carney Lansford’s 1984 streak. In 1997, Jason Giambi set the team record with a 25-game run that Tejada could match Tuesday night at Fenway Park. 

Tejada, a first-time All-Star last month, has 10 homers and 31 RBIs since the break, and he has hit safely in 35 of his last 36 games. Though he has played every game for the A’s this season, he hasn’t gone hitless in consecutive games since May 4-5. 

Notes: Dye returned to the A’s lineup after missing Saturday’s game with a sprained ankle, but 2B Ray Durham was a last-minute scratch with lower back pain. He left the clubhouse for X-rays. ... Halter made two errors on simple grounders — one in the second and one in the fourth. Both times, Halter bobbled the exchange between his glove and his throwing hand. ... Shortly before his single, Magee squared to bunt, drawing boos from the Coliseum crowd ... Higginson went 1-for-16 in the four-game series.