Austin Jackson Leads Tigers Past A's; Paul Maholm Blanks Nats as Braves Complete Sweep

Players of the Day for Sunday, April 14, 2013

American League

On Saturday, the Tigers snapped Oakland's nine-game winning streak with a 7-2 victory On Sunday afternoon, they made sure the A's knew the 2012 AL champion was still the boss, hammering Oakland, 10-1, taking the series by the bay two games to one.

Austin Jackson

Detroit knocked around five Oakland pitchers for 14 hits, four of them off the bat of leadoff hitter, Austin Jackson, who got things started with a single to open the game, scoring on Torii Hunter's double. In the second, Jackson cracked his first home run of the season, a two-run blow that put the Tigers comfortably into a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, Jackson singled and scored again, and singled home his third RBI of the game in the seventh, finishing up 4-for-6 at the plate, raising his batting average to .386; his 17 runs leads the AL.

Detroit gets a travel day Monday, heading to Seattle for a three-game series, starting Tuesday.

National League

Paul Maholm

Batting from the leadoff spot, B.J. Upton singled and doubled twice in five at-bats, scoring twice and brother Justin cracked his seventh home run of the season as the Braves completed their three-game sweep of the Nationals with a 9-0 pasting.

The Braves pounded out 12 hits while starter Paul Maholm was shredding the Washington order, allowing just four hits and one walk over 7 2/3 innings for his third win of the season without a loss. Maholm fanned seven, giving him 20 on the season, extending his scoreless string to 20 2/3 innings to start the year.

Maholm joins the Giants' Madison Bumgarner and the Mets' Matt Harvey as three-game winners. He is tied with San Fran's Barry Zito with a 0.00 ERA.

Atlanta improved to 11-1 and holds a 3 1/2 game lead over the Mets in the NL East. The Nationals are four games out.