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OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland Athletics are opening up quite a cushion in the AL West. Josh Donaldson hit a two-run single in a four-run third inning against Oakland nemesis Jered Weaver and the As completed a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels with a 6-3 victory on Sunday. "We played well this series," Donaldson said. "Got some timely hits and we pitched well. I definitely think its one of those series we walk away and feel good about ourselves." Jed Lowrie homered and drove in two runs and Coco Crisp added an RBI double against Weaver (6-4) to give the As their first home sweep of at least three games against the Angels since June 29-July 1, 2004. Oakland leads the AL West by 4 1/2 games over Los Angeles, its largest pre-All-Star break lead since being 5 1/2 up in 1990. "We stubbed our toe this weekend but were looking at the big picture," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Were a good team and our pitchers are a big part of that." The big inning was more than enough support for Sonny Gray (6-1), who allowed a pair of sacrifice flies and an RBI double by Erick Aybar in 6 2-3 innings to rebound from a rare rough start. Gray has 11 quality starts in 12 outings this season for a 2.45 ERA. "We all knew coming in it was tight and they were playing really good baseball and we needed to take care of business at home," Gray said. "The way we were able to put these three games together ... that was awesome." As good as Gray has been this season, Weaver has been even better against the As of late. He allowed just two runs in 44 1-3 innings over six starts the past two seasons against Oakland, proving to be the one Angels pitcher who befuddled the As on their way to back-to-back AL West titles. Oakland more than doubled that scoring output in the fourth inning with a rally that got started when Craig Gentry hustled to beat out a potential double play. Gentry went to third on Eric Sogards single and scored on Crisps double. Donaldson added his two-run single and Lowrie capped the inning with a two-out single that made it 4-0. "This is a totally different As club," Weaver said. "They have great pitching, guys who can get on base at the bottom of the order and who can do the little things. I had one inning that got away from me. I wish we played better this series, but it is not the end of the year. Well see them again." Grey escaped a bases-loaded jam by striking out Hank Conger to end the fourth inning before allowing the sacrifice flies to Aybar and Albert Pujols in the fifth. Lowrie, who entered the game in a 4-for-30 slump, hit his solo homer in the bottom of the fifth to put Oakland back up by three and the As added an unearned run in the sixth as Oakland matched its highest scoring output ever against Weaver in 27 career starts. "I think he just left some pitches up," Donaldson said. "He tries to execute up at times, but there are times when he left some off-speed pitches up and that gives us a chance to definitely hit the ball a little bit harder." Grey was replaced by Dan Otero after Aybars two-out double in the seventh made it 6-3. Otero struck out Pujols to end the inning. Luke Gregerson pitched a scoreless eighth and Sean Doolittle struck out the side in order in the ninth for his fifth save in six chances. NOTES: Weaver allowed six runs -- five earned -- and 11 hits in six innings. ... Angels OF Mike Trout missed a second straight game with a stiff back. ... C Stephen Vogt started after being called up from Triple-A Sacramento early in the day to give Oakland another bat with 1B Brandon Moss (right calf) and outfielder Josh Reddick (right knee) day to day with injuries. ... Both teams are off Monday. The Angels open a three-game series in Houston on Tuesday, while the As start a three-game series against the Yankees in New York. Wholesale NHL Jerseys . "I just think what it does for everybody in life is real simple," said Babcock early on Friday afternoon. "You dont give in. You just keep on keeping on. Is it going to go your way every time? No. But you choose your attitude and how you perform and how hard you dig in." Nearly four years to the day of the 2010 gold medal match in Vancouver, his team dug in with its best effort of these Olympics, snuffing out the high-powered Americans for another opportunity at gold. Clearance NHL Jerseys . Its great to be back for another season in Banditland, and Im looking forward to another competitive season with my teammates, said Tavares. https://www.chinanhljerseys.us/. And I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences gained through International competition and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Seven NHL referees and six linesmen will be assigned upcoming games in Sochi by the IIHF as part of their 28-man officiating roster comprised of 14 refs and 14 linesmen. Custom NHL Jerseys . Both had to wait out a rain interruption lasting nearly five hours before taking comprehensive third-round victories to join Carling Bassett-Seguso (1983, 1986), Patricia Hy-Boulais (1996-97) and Daniel Nestor (1999) as Canadians who made it into the second week of a major. NHL Jerseys China . In the days leading up to the draft, TSN.ca and TSN Radio basketball analyst Duane Watson looks at some of the names that will be headlining the event. Watch the 2014 NBA Draft on TSN, Thursday at 7pm et/4pm pt.The sin bin was first used in this country back in 1982 when Great Britain played Australia in a Test Match in Hull. Anybody who has any understanding of sport knows that it is an area off the field where a player who has committed a foul or broken the rules can be sent to for a specified time period.In fact, even if you have never watched sport before you would still fathom it is a half-way house to being sent off. Common sense dictates that you would use it for the more serious or repetitive offences that players or teams commit. It is for incidents that are not worthy of a red card but more serious than just a penalty. Warrington v St Helens Three key battles that could decide Fridays Super League clash Before I continue with my point I want to make it clear that this is not a criticism of a referee, more a point I wish to raise about the use of the sin bin in general.I am going to use a specific example but I dont even know who the referee of the Wigan v Warrington game was.This is not a criticism of a referee but an observation on the game and it is not the first time I have made this point in 2016. I have consistently felt that we do not use the sin bin enough and have this fear of forcing a team to play with 12 men for 10 minutes.I watched another game recently when I thought that the referee should have used his yellow card on three occasions. It seems as though I am out of tune with the match officials so let me put my case forward. Liam Farrell has accepted a ban of 80 minutes but at the time, and with the aid of a video referee and replays, he did not serve 10 minutes in the bin. Phil Clarke Stefan Ratchford dived along the in-goal area to score just before half-time when Warrington played at Wigan last Thursday. As he did so, Liam Farrell came in, after he had already grounded the ball, and made contact with his knee into the side of the try scorer.The referee felt that this was foul play and awarded an eight-point try, but the incident looked bad and could have caused a bigger problem if the Warrington players hadnt reacted with such discipline. However, the ref chose not to send Farrell to the bin. Watch Barrie McDermott and Terry OConnors favourite hits from round nine of Super League Earlier this week Farrell was charged by the RFL with striking an opponent and entered an Early Guilty Plea.ddddddddddddHe received the lowest possible suspension for his Grade B offence and was suspended for one match.So let me put this to you. Farrell has accepted a ban of 80 minutes but at the time, and with the aid of a video referee and replays, he did not serve 10 minutes in the bin. That just does not make sense to me.There have been 21 yellow cards in Super League this season. Five of these were for Interference in the play-the-ball area, three for offside and two for obstruction. Are you really telling me that those types of offences are worse that striking a player with your knee after he has scored a try? Should two yellow cards result in a red? This then leads onto another interesting question. Should two yellow cards in one match equal a red as they do in the most popular game in this country, football? Farrell had been sent to the sin bin for holding down Daryl Clark earlier in the first half after the Wolves had made a break down the centre of the field.Farrell was perhaps a little unlucky as he seemed to get entangled with Clark but was sin-binned. It was in a potential try-scoring situation and I agree it was a sin bin in the current system, but it did not seem as serious an offence.We need to ensure that the game is easy to understand and that the rules make sense to the common sports fan. If you got 100 people to watch both incidents and asked them to guess which incident resulted in the player being binned, I would be amazed if more than five voted for the minor interference at the play-the-ball. Sky Live: Hull KR v Catalans James Webster urges Robins to burst Catalans bubble on Thursday So if he had been given a yellow for the foul on Ratchford do you think he should be able to come back on after his second yellow?The current rules allow a player to be sent to the sin bin several times in one game. In fact, we have had matches when a player has had two yellow cards, but that just doesnt seem right to me.Ive read in the past that putting a man in the in bin ruins a game as it disadvantages the team too much and spoils the match. I dont believe that is true in Super League. If I mix yellow with yellow I see red and so should the referee.Lets empower the officials to make decisions there and then, and for it to make common sense. Also See: Warrington v St Helens: Key battles Sky Live: Hull KR v Catalans Farrell accepts one-game ban Referee Thaler back in frame ' ' '