(Reuters) - The Oakland Athletics stayed disciplined on the mound to claim a 2-0 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday, avoiding a sweep in their American League Division Series after suffering two narrow road losses in Detroit.

Brett Anderson tossed six scoreless innings, striking out six, as the Athletics limited the Tigers to just four hits on the way to reducing the deficit in the best-of-five series to 2-1.

Oakland is hosting the final three games of the series and will be hoping for a repeat of the manner in which they ended the regular season with a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers to steal the AL West title on the final day.

Game Four is at The Coliseum on Wednesday.

As Anderson kept Detroit's hitters at bay, Yoenis Cespedes gave the Athletics an early lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning before Seth Smith added a solo home run in the fifth.

Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez was also solid in allowing just two runs in 6 1/3 innings of work but it was not enough to finish off a resilient Athletics team that has performed brilliantly as a unit since the All-Star break.

(The story is re-filed to fix typo in headline)

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)