A’s finish revenge sweep of Angels in second straight shutout

Oakland’s pitching staff now carries a streak of 18 consecutive scoreless innings.

A week ago, the Oakland Athletics hit arguably their lowest point of the season, getting swept by the Los Angeles Angels, their roommates in the AL West basement. The only way to get the team back on track to something other than complete deterioration was to win this follow-up series in decisive fashion.

Today, that mission was accomplished, with the A’s pitching staff once again shutting out the Angels lineup in a 5-0 victory, extending their scoreless streak to 18 consecutive innings, and sweeping the Halos to even up the season series.

De facto veteran of the staff JP Sears continued the A’s recent string of strong starts, allowing over 3 baserunners over 5 innings while striking out 6 batters along the way. This represented his first scoreless start since May 25, since which he struggled to a rough 7.28 ERA/5.59 FIP. After today’s strong outing, which lowered his season ERA to 4.74, the 28-year-old southpaw will hope to use his learnings to get his season back on track.

Offensively, Oakland got contributions from up and down the lineup. As a whole, they only totaled 4 hits but they supplemented that with patience and discipline, working 9 walks out of 5 different Angels pitchers. The proverbial started in the bottom of the 3rd inning with a pair of walks from Brett Harris and JJ Bleday. The middle of the lineup delivered, driving those guys in via a couple of singles from Miguel Andujar and Brent Rooker, topped off by a sac fly RBI from Tyler Soderstrom.

The fireworks finale came off the bat of the surging Lawrence Butler. On a third-pitch 96 mph fastball from Angels relieve Jose Marte, the rookie outfielder launched it deep and high to left-center field. With Kevin Pillar percolating in center field, having already robbed a homer from JJ Bleday earlier in the game, it wasn’t a sure thing that Law’s hit would make it out. As fans watched Pillar climb and reach his glove far past the wall, it was a huge relief to see the baseball drop onto the Coliseum cement, giving Butler his second homer of the series. Along with Soderstrom’s breakout and Gelof’s resurgence, Law getting it going will be the key to turning the A’s offense into a legitimate force.

In spite of the sweep, the Oakland A’s are still a measly 33-56, fourth-worst in the league. Though they closed the gap between them and the Angels by 3 games, they’re still a hefty 4.5 games back from getting out of the AL West cellar. They’ll now enter an extremely tough stretch going into the All-Star Game, as they’ll have to play 3 of the 10 best teams in the league: the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, and the league-leading Philadelphia Phillies. The A’s will either come out of this proving they’re a new and improved team or get plunged deeper into the abyss they’re already dwelling in. No pressure!