Posted: 08/22/2014 10:11:41 PM PDT
Updated: 08/22/2014 10:32:30 PM PDT
OAKLAND -- The A's got back Friday night to the formula that had them in first place for three months, beating the first-place Los Angeles Angels 5-3 in a battle of the teams with the best records in the majors.
The A's got great starting pitching from Sonny Gray, and they worked on Angels starter Hector Santiago enough to force him out of the game early, then muscled up on the bullpen.
Oakland batters worked the pitch count on Santiago, getting him to 98 pitches after five innings. He came out of the game at that point, and the A's jumped on his immediate successor, Jason Grilli, for two sixth-inning runs to break a 2-2 tie.
The A's climbed within one game of first place. This was the first of 10 times the A's and Angels will play each other down the stretch, and the team that does the best could well wind up with home-field advantage throughout the A.L. playoffs.
The A's offense had been sluggish in an 8-11 start to August, and much of that could be traced to Oakland batters being unable to work pitch counts the way they had in the season's first four months.
The game plan -- to get the pitch count high enough to force starters out of the game early, then get to middle relievers -- has mostly worked for the A's. The Angels bullpen is much improved since the last time the teams met, but Oakland needed just the one breakthrough inning to get the win for Gray, who went 81/3 innings, leaving the last two outs to Sean Doolittle.
Doolittle allowed an RBI single to David Freese, then a walk to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Chris Iannetta struck out on a 2-2 pitch, the 26th thrown by Doolittle, to end it.
Gray pitched more than seven innings for the first time since the All-Star break, surviving two solo homers to post his 13th win and end a personal four-game losing streak. He threw 102 pitches, 70 of them strikes, in allowing six hits and two walks. None of the hits came with a man in scoring position, a scenario that had hurt Gray in an 0-4 start to August.
The Angels' Mike Trout stung Gray with a first-inning homer, but Gray wasn't in a hole long. Coco Crisp opened the bottom of the inning with his eighth homer of the year and the 15th homer to open a game in his career.
Gray set down eight men in succession from the first through the fourth before Josh Hamilton unloaded, hitting his ninth homer. The The Angels held that lead until the fifth when Crisp doubled with one out and scored when Angels' shortstop Erick Aybar threw wildly past first base in an effort to complete an inning-ending double play.
An inning later, Santiago, a lefty, was replaced by right-hander Grilli, and the A's liked the change.
Alberto Callaspo singled with one out and Sam Fuld blasted a liner to the wall in right-center. Callaspo scored when the relay throw wasn't close and Fuld wound up at third with his third triple. That broke the 2-2 tie, and moments later Andy Parrino made it 4-2 with a sacrifice fly.
Stephen Vogt didn't start the game and flied out to the wall as a pinch-hitter in the sixth. In the eighth, however, he put the ball over the right field wall for his ninth homer and a 5-2 lead.
The A's got outfielder Craig Gentry back from the disabled list Friday, just in time to face the Angels, a team he has a .407 batting average and a .448 on-base percentage against this season. He'd been 0-for-7 in an injury rehabilitation assignment, but the A's needed another right-handed bat. He beat out an infield hit in his first at-bat and later walked. Oakland had hoped first baseman Kyle Blanks, another right-hander who could add some muscle against lefty pitchers, would be ready for activation from the disabled list this week or at worst when rosters expand in 10 days. It appears that won't be the case. Blanks, out since June 23 with a calf injury, had started an injury rehabilitation assignment, but it hasn't gone well. Now both his feet are giving him problems, and Blanks had an MRI on Friday to see if the club can get to the bottom of the problem. 'He's sore from the ankles down,' manager Bob Melvin said. Utility infielder Nick Punto, who suffered a strained right hamstring at the beginning of the month, is not close to returning. He's doing more work, but he's still not doing overall baseball activities like hitting or throwing.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, August 22, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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