Oakland A’s riding high after win against Los Angeles Angels
The A’s are riding high. With a 5-3 win over the Los Angele Angels — losers of seven of their last 10 games despite one of baseball’s most daunting gauntlet of hitters — Oakland boasts an American League-best 19-8 record.
The A’s also cushioned their lead in the American League West with San Diego Padres snapping the Houston Astros’ eight-game win streak moments after Liam Hendriks got the game’s final out in Oakland.
Speaking of streaks, the A’s have also won nine straight at the Oakland Coliseum — three under the haze from the hundreds of California wildfires blazing around Northern California.
“We love playing at the Coliseum. Obviously we wish there was fans,” Stephen Piscotty said after the game. “But we feel good here. We’re comfortable at this ballpark. Sometimes these streaks are hard to explain, but we love playing here.”
A’s score early, breaking old habits
The A’s put up three quick runs in the first inning, a run that might’ve been unheard of heading into this homestand.
Entering Wednesday’s game, the A’s had a .214 average and .638 OPS in innings 1-through-6. They’d choose, instead, to procrastinate with on winning games — averaging .244 with 14 home runs and a .830 OPS in the seventh innings and later.
Friday, Marcus Semien hit a leadoff home run, his fourth homer of the season and his second to lead off a game this season.
In the same inning, Stephen Piscotty’s first-pitch double cashed in Matt Chapman’s double and Mark Canha’s nine-pitch walk to extend the A’s lead to 3-0 against Angles left-hander Andrew Heaney.
“When you’re wining like we are — knock wood — it gives you more confidence right away,” Manager Bob Melvin said. “Constantly having to come back, it’s a bit of a grind.”
They’d add on some later on, anyway.
Despite Heaney’s post-first inning adjustments, Canha and Piscotty struck him again, and Matt Olson joined the party, in the fifth inning. Canha found a gap in left-center field for a one-out double, and Olson’s opposite field drive escaped outfielder Brian Goodwin’s glove to put another run up.
Angels manager Joe Maddon tapped right-handed reliever Mike Mayers to tackle Piscotty, but he answered with an RBI single.
Mike Fiers goes 5 1/3 innings
Fiers was navigating traffic all evening. In the first, je struck out Brian Goodwin swinging at a breaking ball in the dirt with Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon in scoring position.
He threw 21 pitches to escape a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, incurring a pop out with one out and a runner on third and fly out to keep the Angels scoreless.
But this loaded lineup would strike eventually. David Fletcher swung and hit a double on a fastball that was quite literally at his eyes.
“I’m not surprised,” Fiers said. “This guy, I don’t know what he does in the offseason, but it’s working. The guy puts the barrel on the ball. Very tough out. He’s an all-around great baseball player.”
Rendon’s third hit of the day — he’d go 4-for-5 — scored Fletcher for the Angels’ first run.
J.B. Wendelken took over for Fiers with two on, and Fletcher, of course, singled to load the bases. With two outs, Mike Trout’s bases-loaded grounder bounced off Matt Olson’s glove and out of second baseman Chad Pinder’s reach to score two more for the Angels.
Pinder felt a little tightness in his side diving for the deflected ball. Tony Kemp replaced him at second base in the late innings.
Joakim Soria and Liam Hendriks dominant
Trout would get a chance to tie the game in the eighth inning, but Joakim Soria wouldn’t have it.
Soria had given up a one-out hit to, you guessed it, Fletcher, and retired Tommy La Stella.
Trout saw seven pitches before Soria froze the MVP on a 76 mph slider right down the pipe for a strike three call. Trout flashed a tip-my-cap smile to Soria as the veteran reliever pumped his fist and walked off the mound.
“Usually we’re pretty careful with Trout or we walk him, and that’s not an option with Rendon behind him,” Melvin said.
The veteran in his 13th season is putting together one of the league’s best seasons thus far — not to mention a career year. Granted, the season is still not 30-games old.
He’s allowed just two earned runs in 13 appearances. His exit velocity allowed ranks among the league’s top 6 percentile and his 1.84 expected ERA ranks in the top 2 percentile. In other words, hitters aren’t getting much action off of Soria’s offerings.
“He’s got a long history of pitching late in games,” Melvin said. “He’s been fantastic and, for the most part, in his outings he’s faced the tough part of the lineup. It’s a mix of pitches, it’s a lot of experience and different arm angles.”
Don’t forget about Hendriks, who has quietly dominated even if he enters save situations to raucous Metallica-inspired warm-up music.
Hendriks breaking ball somehow has more bite to it than it did in 2019, and he’s blowing his high-90s mph fastball past every and any hitter. He recorded his league-leading ninth save and is striking out batters at a 40.8% rate. He hasn’t allowed a run since Aug. 8 against the Astros.