Seesaw game ends with Oakland on bottom
ANAHEIM — With the Angels still in the middle of the American League playoff hunt, the A’s came to town hoping to have some impact on the race, even though they’ve already clinched the league’s worst record.
And Oakland put up a fight Monday, trading leads with the Angels every other inning or so. But in the ninth, the A’s second error of the game pretty much sank them in a 5-4 loss at Angel Stadium.
C.J. Cron singled to lead off the inning, then David Freese hit a tapper in front of the plate that pitcher Edward Mujica got to quickly, but his throw to first hit Freese.On the error, pinchrunner Collin Cowgill went to third, and Freese to second.
Mujica walked Shane Victorino intentionally to load the bases, and lefty Fernando Abad was summoned to face pinchhitter David Murphy. Murphy drilled a single to left to put the Angels two games behind Texas in the AL West and keep the Angels a half-game behind Houston for the second wild card.
“It certainly ups the intensity,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of playing contenders. “We’ve been playing some decent games, staying close. We just haven’t been coming through at the end when we need to.”
The A’s have specialized in one-run losses, with an Oakland-record 34, and also in errors, with a major-league-high 120. The team hasn’t finished the season with the majors’ most errors since 1978.
“When you play close games like that, it will show up,” Melvin said of the A’s ineffective defense. “We’ve seen it often this year.”
The A’s first run was a strange one in a strange inning. Billy Burns singled on the first pitch of the game; that part’s not strange, he has 56 first-pitch hits, the most by an A’s player since Stats Inc. began tracking the stat in 1988. Then Hector Santiago hit Mark Canha with a pitch. After Brett Lawrie hit into a fielder’s choice, Danny Valencia walked to load the bases.
Billy Butler hit a shallow fly to right center, where Mike Trout made a running grab and then an on-the-money throw to the plate, sending Burns racing back to third. Burns would have been out there had Freese not missed the throw from catcher Chris Iannetta. Burns headed home again. Once he got there, Cron, the first baseman, dropped the throw from Erick Aybar. The error went to Cron, and the A’s led 1-0.
The Angels picked up two runs in the third off Felix Doubront. Iannetta walked and scored on a double by Johnny Giavotella, who went to third on an error by Burns and then scored on a double by Aybar.
Oakland tied it in the fourth on Marcus Semien’s homer to left, his 14th of the season. Semien has reached base in a career-high 19 consecutive games, which is also an A’s season high. The Angels and A’s then traded sacrifice flies (Iannetta in the fourth, Jake Smolinski in the sixth.)
Still in the sixth, Cory Rasmus walked Semien, and Coco Crisp pinch hit for Craig Gentry, so left-hander Jose Alvarez replaced Rasmus. Crisp, a switch hitter, knocked a soft single to right, scoring Butler. And like the Angels, the A’s had a man thrown out trying to advance to third; Kole Calhoun got Semien to end the inning.
“I felt like that was a routine first-to-third on my part, but he’s got one of the best arms in the league and I found that out the hard way,” Semien said.
Albert Pujols lasered a pitch from Doubront to left-center to tie it again in the sixth. “That was a mistake, a cutter, flat,” Doubront said. “... A bad pitch.”