Oakland's hitters keep saying how determined they are to take some pressure off their pitchers and start producing.

Their bats finally came through Friday night.

Mark Ellis went 3-for-4 with a home run as the Athletics backed up a strong start by Ted Lilly, defeating the Cleveland Indians 5-2.

Ellis homered in the first, singled in the fifth and doubled in the seventh. He also scored two runs as the Oakland offense showed signs of waking up.

"We're anxious," Ellis said. "It's about time we got going. We had our little lull but we've got to help our pitchers. You don't want to put all that pressure on your pitching staff. They can't throw a shutout every time. We've got to score some runs."

Eric Chavez, Ramon Hernandez and Chris Singleton each had two hits, and Singleton stopped an 0-for-7 slump with his second-inning single. Hernandez continued his strong play at the plate with an eighth-inning homer.

Lilly (2-0) made one of his most effective starts of the year in his fifth appearance. He hadn't won since beating Anaheim in his first outing on April 4.

He retired seven of his first nine batters before a two-out solo homer by Casey Blake in the third. The Indians have lost four straight on their current 10-game road trip, including getting swept in Seattle. Cleveland has lost the last six meetings against Oakland.

Lilly allowed six hits and two runs, striking out two and walking one. He kept his pitch count down by getting ahead in the count. In his last start Sunday against Texas, he threw 96 pitches in 5 2-3 innings. This time, he made only 88 pitches.

"I think every pitcher wants a quick game," said Lilly, who was not happy with his last effort in which he did not get out of the sixth inning against the Rangers and took 96 pitches to get that far. "I wanted to find a way to get deeper into the game. Tonight, I was able to get ahead and use my sinker to get a lot of ground balls. Ideally, that's the way I'd like to pitch."

"I think any pitcher wants a good tempo," Lilly said. "If we're pitching a good tempo, then for the most part we're keeping guys off base."

"Lilly was terrific," Macha said. "He had a better plan tonight. He was able to get strike one and he analyzed the hitters. He knew which hitters were aggressive and which were patient and made that work for him."

Shane Spencer also homered off his former New York Yankees teammate, sending a 1-2 pitch over the wall in the seventh.

Keith Foulke pitched the ninth for his fifth save in six chances.