Jack Cust, Rajai Davis homer for Oakland in 5-4 win over Dodgers

Cust, Davis homer for A’s in 5-4 win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — Rajai Davis and Jack Cust homered in the third inning, rookie Trevor Cahill overcame an early bout of wildness and the Oakland Athletics snapped a four-game skid with a 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night.

Cahill (4-5) held the team with baseball’s best record to two unearned runs and four hits in 5 1-3 innings. The 21-year-old righty retired his first two batters, then walked the next three while throwing 12 straight pitches out of the strike zone — including the first three to Andre Ethier, who popped out on a 3-1 delivery.

Cahill had to sweat it out after handing a 5-2 lead to the bullpen. The Dodgers narrowed the gap to 5-4 in the seventh with Ethier’s two-run single against Brad Ziegler, after Cust dropped Orlando Hudson’s routine fly to right for his second error of the season. But Matt Kemp grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Ziegler pitched a scoreless eighth and Andrew Bailey got three outs for his sixth save.

Hiroki Kuroda (1-3) allowed five runs and seven hits over six innings before he was lifted for a pinch hitter.

The Athletics built a 4-0 lead with three runs in the third. Davis led off with a drive to left-center that ended a 50-game homer drought dating to Sept. 5 at Baltimore, when he hit his first career grand slam against reliever Randor Bierd. Cahill, batting for the first time in 3½ seasons of professional ball, followed with a single to right before Cust drove his 12th homer into the left-field pavilion.

The next time Cust came to the plate, he led off the sixth with a perfect bunt single toward the vacated third base area while the Dodgers’ infield overshifted toward the right side. Cust was forced at second on a fielder’s choice grounder by Matt Holliday, who stole second and scored from third on a two-out single by Orlando Cabrera that gave Oakland a 5-1 lead.

The Dodgers scored their first run in the fifth on an RBI single by Hudson after a two-out error by second baseman Adam Kennedy. Kemp cut the deficit to 5-2 in the sixth with a sacrifice fly.

Kennedy opened the game with a double and scored on a groundout by Holliday.

NOTES: RHP Jeff Weaver will start Saturday against younger brother Jered when the Dodgers face the Angels in Anaheim. It will be the 21st time in major league history that siblings will start against each other and the first time since Sept. 6, 2002, when the Cardinals’ Andy Benes handed the Cubs and younger brother Alan an 11-2 defeat at St. Louis. … Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton received a cortisone shot in the big toe on his right foot and wasn’t available to pitch. … This was the third time in 36 major league starts that Kuroda allowed two home runs in one inning. … Mark Loretta struck out while batting for Kuroda in the sixth, and is hitless in his last 14 at-bats as a pinch hitter. He started the season 8 for 13 in those situations. … Dodgers C Russell Martin was 0 for 3 and is 5 for 43 in his last 12 games.

(Athletics 5, Dodgers 4; SUBS lede to correct that homers by Davis and Cust came in 3rd inning, sted 2nd)