Dickey hurt by 3 homers as Athletics beat Blue Jays, 5-4

Oakland Athletics' Ryon Healy, right, is congratulated by Stephen Vogt (21) after hitting a three-run home run off Toronto Blue Jays' R.A. Dickey for his first major league hit in the second inning of a baseball game Saturday, July 16, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. (AP / Ben Margot)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- R.A. Dickey thought it was a safe pitch to a major league rookie. It turned out to be one of his few mistakes.

Dickey gave up three home runs, though two of them were solo, and the Toronto Blue Jays lost 5-4 to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

"If you got the ball up in the air today it was going to go," Dickey said. "That's the first slow knuckleball I've thrown in four years that got hit out for a home run. I thought it would be a safe pitch. I was trying to find the speed it was moving most and today it was the harder one."

Dickey (7-10), who had won three of his previous four starts, said he felt good all day. The three-run shot by Ryon Healy, his first major league hit, stood out.

"If I can subtract that homer, we win the game," Dickey said. "The ball was only out by 4 or 5 feet. I'm not sure he got all of it and, in retrospect, there's not a lot of history on the guy. I stuck with the harder one after that and got better results."

Dickey allowed five runs on five hits in his six innings. He walked three and struck out four.

"It's a home run park during the day and that's what got us today," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "There wasn't a lot of break early on but he found his groove. He was giving up fly balls and that can be your enemy."

Josh Thole, who had two hits and drove in a pair of runs, ended a 77 at-bat streak without an extra base hit with a two-run double in the second. Four of his five RBIs have come in his last two games.

"I'm tweaking things and I'm feeling comfortable," Thole said. "I'll ride it as long as I can."

Khris Davis hit two home runs and Sonny Gray snapped a 12-game winless drought for the A's.

Davis was 2 for 4 in his ninth career multi-homer game, three of which came this season. The A's have homered six times in two games, three of them by Davis.

The Blue Jays, who'd won eight of nine games going into the All-Star break, lost to Oakland for a second straight day to start the second half.

Grey (4-8) ended a career-worst seven game skid. He was 0-7 with a 6.16 ERA over his previous 12 starts. He allowed three runs on six hits and four walks in six innings.

Edwin Encarnacion hit his 24th homer leading off the top of the third for Toronto. Justin Smoak hit a solo homer, his 10th, off Ryan Madson, who pitched the ninth for his 19th save.

CHALLENGING TIMES

A day after a replay ruling on a play at the plate figured prominently in an A's 8-7 win, home plate was the centre of two more challenges -- on the same play. After Gibbons' challenge overturned an A's scoring play in the bottom of the seventh inning, A's manager Bob Melvin challenged the reversal, contending that catcher Thole blocked Marcus Semien's path to the plate. Replay officials rejected Melvin's argument. On Friday, Josh Reddick scored the tiebreaking run on a play at the plate that was overturned on a challenge.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: LHP J.A. Happ is 6-0 with a 2.73 ERA over his last six starts. The Blue Jays are averaging 10.1 runs over that stretch. Happ (12-3, 3.36 ERA) has already tied his career high for wins in a season and opens the second half on pace to win 20 games.

Athletics: In his last seven starts, LHP Rich Hill is 6-0 with a 2.05 ERA with no home runs allowed. He is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two starts since coming off the disabled list (left groin strain) on July 1. He is 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA in 10 career appearances against Toronto.