Nate Freiman Lifts A's to Sweep of Astros; Martin Prado Powers Daimondbacks over Padres, 6-5

Players of the Day for Sunday, May 26, 2013

American League

Oakland completed its three-game sweep of the Astros with a 6-2 win in Houston, creeping to within 4 1/2 games of NL West leader, Texas.

Nate Freiman

The A's scored five of their runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by rookie Nate Freiman's double, which sent two Oakland players across the plate.

In the sixth, Freiman added the finishing touch for the A's with his second major league home run, a 425-foot blast to center. Bartolo Colon surrendered nine hits over seven innings, but kept the Astros off the scoreboard, fanning nine. Houston's two runs in the eighth inning were of no consequence.

Winners of eight of their last nine, the A's picked up a game on the Rangers, 4-3 losers in 13 innings at Seattle.

Next stop for the A's is back to the Bay area, where they host the Giants for two games, Monday and Tuesday, before a pair of games across the Bay.

National League

Martin Prado

The NL West continues to be the most-hotly-contested division in baseball, with the Giants, Diamondbacks and Rockies all intent on grabbing an early edge, though none have been particularly successful at establishing themselves as the team to beat.

With San Francisco taking two of three from the Rockies with a 7-3 win and Arizona topping San Diego, 6-5, Sunday, the race is as undecided as ever.

At the end of the day, the Diamondbacks and Giants are deadlocked on top, with the Rockies a game out.

Arizona's win was one of six major league games decided by one run on Sunday, the decisive blow coming off the bat of Martin Prado, who doubled home Jason Kubel in the seventh, giving the D'Backs a 6-4 lead. The Padres countered with a run in the eighth, but that was all she wrote.

Prado finished the day 4-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of singles. He scored once and drove in one, boosting his batting average from .242 to .257. Prado terrorized San Diego pitching, going 8-for-12 in the series, which Arizona took, two games to one.

With interleague play beginning in earnest on Monday, the Diamondbacks play two at home with the Rangers and then head to Arlington, Texas, for a pair of games.

Today's Trivia: From 1992 to 2002, the NL Cy Young Award was hoarded by two pitchers, each of whom won the award four consecutive times. Can you name them?

Yesterday's Answer: White Sox hero, Frank Thomas, was the last AL player to win consecutive MVP awards, in 1993 and 1994.