Winning with dash and smash
ANAHEIM — When Oakland’s offense really got rolling Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, the A’s legs are what set things in motion.
Oakland stole four bases, two of which set up the team’s first two runs in a 9- 2 victory over the Angels. Billy Butler smacked his second homer in two nights, a tworun blast to dead center in Oakland’s five- run seventh inning, and drove in four runs overall.
Sonny Gray worked seven innings for the A’s and, even working with a headache, allowed only two hits and one run. He was particularly impressive in working out of a bases- loaded, one- out situation in the third, striking out Albert Pujols and getting David Freese to pop up.
“He gets into trouble a little bit and then he just got better,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “For him to be able to make pitches he did in that moment, that’s why he is who he is.”
Wednesday’s total was the most steals by the A’s in more than a year. For
years, the notion stuck that the team doesn’t steal bases because of the whole “Moneyball” don’t- give- up- outs business, but that hasn’t been the real gist of it.
Oakland is OK with stealing bases ... just not getting thrown out. If the right personnel can nab some bags with a good success rate, general manager Billy Beane is all in favor. And the A’s are 11- for- 11 on stolenbase attempts this season.
“That was the plan,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We were going to try to run a little bit tonight, and with Coco ( Crisp) out, we don’t have our best runner in there, but we do have several guys who can steal some bases, and it showed.”
Sam Fuld singled in the first and stole second, went to third on a base hit by Vogt and scored on a groundout by Butler. Then Oakland failed to score in each of the next five innings against Jered Weaver. Eric Sogard led off the seventh against reliever Fernando Salas with a single, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Marcus Semien and scored on a two- out hit by Vogt to put the A’s back in front 2- 1.
That turned the taps on full blast, even with two outs. Oakland scored four more runs in the inning, and added three in the eighth.
Ike Davis finished with three hits, lifting his average to .348 ( to go with his 0.00 ERA from the night before) and Josh Reddick also had three hits. Fuld was on base three times and scored each time.
Arnold Leon, recalled earlier in the day, made his majorleague debut in the ninth and allowed a run. The first bigleague batter he faced was Mike Trout, and Leon got him to fly out to center.
“That was awesome. I didn’t realize that I was going in today,” said Leon, 26, who has been in Oakland’s organization since he was a teenager. “Good times.”
Leon, who was sent back to Triple- A Nashville after the game, said equipment manager Steve Vucinich had the game ball for him, from his first big- league strikeout, Collin Cowgill to end the game.
“As soon as I struck out the guy, I said, ‘ Hey, save it!’ ” Leon said, beaming.
“When I saw him warming up tonight, it put a smile on my face,” Vogt said. “Now he doesn’t have anything else to worry about. He had his first walk, first strikeout, first hit and first earned run. Now he can just go pitch.”
The A’s continued their trend of lopsided wins. In their eight victories, they’ve outscored opponents 62- 6. And they’ve been remarkably consistently in sticking right at even well into the third week of the season. Oakland is back at .500, and the A’s have not been more than one game over .500 and not more than one game under .500.
“We haven’t won too many in a row, we haven’t lost too many in a row — we just need to string something together,” Butler said.