Seven homers allowed, and yet a win
ANAHEIM — From his vantage point behind home plate, Oakland Athletics catcher Stephen Vogt watched as drive after drive by Anaheim hitters cleared the walls at Angel Stadium.
One last flyball off the bat of the reigning AL MVP, though, fell well short and Vogt walked to the pitcher’s mound to meet A.J. Puk for a hug that, surely, held a bit of relief.
The A’s allowed seven — seven — solo home runs, yet held off the Angels for an 8-7 win in their series finale Thursday.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Vogt said. “The old adage of ‘Solo shots don’t beat you,’ I guess we proved that right again today.”
The Angels’ seven solo home runs tied a major-league record. And they became the first team to hit seven solo homers and score no other runs in a game, according to MLB.com.
“Definitely a weird game,” said Puk, who retired Shohei Ohtani — who had already hit two HRs — on the only pitch he threw.
“It was kind of crazy,” starter Paul Blackburn said, “but I’ll take a series win any day.”
Oakland’s offense forged a six-run third inning — Ramón Laureano and Sean Murphy hit two-run doubles and Seth Brown a two-run homer — and Laureano added a two-run homer in the fourth. The outburst by a team ranked 29th in the majors in runs per game proved just enough as the Angels hammered away.
Blackburn allowed a homer in each of his first four innings, all on a different type of pitch. Ohtani drove a four-seam fastball for an opposite-field homer in the first. Kurt Suzuki
homered on a cutter in the second, Taylor Ward on a sinker in the third and Jo Adell on a curveball in the fourth.
“I think Paul … had trouble getting the ball down in the zone today,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “When he did, he got outs and was effective.”
It marked Blackburn’s first outing in the majors with four homers allowed. After giving up three in his first 13 starts this season, Blackburn has surrendered 12 in his past eight.
“A couple of them they got into, a couple I felt like carried a good amount,” Blackburn said. “If you’re going to give up a homer, you’d rather it be a solo homer.”
After Blackburn’s exit, Jared Walsh homered off Sam Moll in the sixth inning — the third homer Moll has allowed in 342⁄3
innings — and Ohtani went deep, again, facing Kirby Snead in the seventh.
Zach Jackson, for a second straight game, got the ninth inning in a save situation. With one out, Mickey Moniak drove a fastball from Jackson to right — the first home run Jackson, a rookie, has allowed in the majors. Jackson had not allowed a home run in his first 411⁄3 innings, the A’s longest careeropening homerless stretch since Brad Ziegler in 2008.
Jackson exited with a runner on base and Ohtani, last year’s MVP, due up. Puk entered and threw one fastball. Vogt set up for it low and away, but it ended up inside. Ohtani skied a pop-up to shortstop Nick Allen.
“I was kind of just rearing back and giving my best heater there, and whatever happens,
happens,” Puk said. “Try to go down with your best stuff.”
It marked only the third time this season the A’s have allowed seven or more runs and won, with one of the previous two an extra-innings win. They are 9-5 since the All-Star break and 41-66 overall.
“I think it’s a testament to (the Angels) — every mistake we made, they hammered, and you just don’t see that very often in a game,” Vogt said. “Obviously, we could have thrown the ball a lot better today, but we won, in a really fun, weird way.”
On Jiménez: Between the fireworks, reliever Dany Jiménez, activated Tuesday from the injured list, made his first appearance since June 18 and struck out the side in the eighth. Jiménez, who was closing for the A’s before his shoulder strain, induced four misses on seven swings, three against his slider and one against his fastball.
“Great outing,” Kotsay said. “He threw efficiently; the slider looks like it did before he went on the IL.”