Kendall Graveman pitches stingy A’s to series win over Indians
When Kendall Graveman was 1-6 in mid-May, he took some solace in some motivational words he heard somewhere.
[...] Graveman is 9-2 with a 3.33 ERA over 16 starts, and Wednesday, he earned his 10th victory of the season as Oakland beat the Indians 5-1.
The only blemish on Graveman’s day was Roberto Perez’s two-out homer in the seventh, which ended Graveman’s string of scoreless innings at 16.
The A’s continued to get nice work from rookie third baseman Ryon Healy, whose hitting streak is at 11 games after an RBI single in the second.
Rookie shortstop Chad Pinder added his second RBI in as many games, a sacrifice fly, and Danny Valencia’s popup fell behind first baseman Carlos Santana, allowing two runs to score.
The popup initially was ruled a hit but was changed to an error, ending Valencia’s streak of multihit games in starts at seven, the A’s longest streak since Randy Velarde had seven in 1999.
Graveman gave up six hits and two walks and struck out two.
Henderson Alvarez (shoulder) will throw an inning in a rehab appearance with rookie-ball Arizona on Saturday. …
Jesse Hahn (shoulder) is likely to make a start with Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday. …
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
The catcher is going on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville this weekend after missing two months while recovering from knee surgery.