Athletics 4, Angels 1: A.J. Griffin pitched eight shutout innings to become the second pitcher in franchise history to start his career with six consecutive victories as visiting Oakland defeated Los Angeles for the third straight night.

Yoenis Cespedes homered for the second time in two nights as the Athletics won their sixth straight contest and matched a franchise record with their 12th consecutive road victory.

Los Angeles’ Albert Pujols slammed a ninth-inning homer off Sean Doolittle to avoid the shutout. Pujols has hit 30 homers in 12 consecutive seasons and the blast was the 475th of his career, moving him into a tie for 28th place all-time with Stan Musial and Willie Stargell.

Griffin (6-0) struck out six and scattered as many hits to keep Oakland three games behind first-place Texas in the American League West. The Athletics have won 15 of their last 18 games and continue to lead the wild-card race.

Los Angeles is now 3 1/2 games off the pace in the battle for the AL’s second wild-card spot.

Oakland scored an unearned run in the first inning. Josh Reddick doubled and scored when Erick Aybar committed a two-out miscue on Cespedes’ grounder.

Cespedes belted an offering from Ervin Santana (8-12) over the left-center field fence in the sixth to make it 2-0.

Derek Norris had a run-scoring double into the right-center field alley in the eighth and scored on a line single to right by Coco Crisp.

Ryan Cook recorded the final out for his 14th save.

Santana gave up two runs (one earned) and four hits in six innings while seeing his career mark against Oakland dropping to 14-5.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Pujols’ 12 straight 30-homer seasons is one behind the record of 13 shared by Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. Jimmie Foxx also slammed 30 homers in 12 consecutive seasons. … Cespedes went 21 games without hitting a homer until going deep each of the past two nights. … Slumping Angels OF Mark Trumbo (1-for-20 over his last six games) was out of the lineup for the second straight game. … Reddick is batting just .093 (4-for-43) in September. … Aybar went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. ... Jim Nash started his career with seven straight wins for the Kansas City Athletics in 1966.