Bullpen blows finale as Angels top Athletics 8-5

So close to a sweep!

The A’s blew an excellent chance to collect a sweep today, blowing a late lead to drop the series finale to the Angels 8-5.

The pitching matchup for today’s finale was A’s rookie righty Joey Estes versus eight-year veteran Carson Fulmer. Both teams threatened over the first couple frames but came up short, partially due to the defense of the A’s:

Welcome back Toro! We missed you.

That wasn’t the only nice defensive play the A’s made early today:

It needed a challenge to get the right call but hey, a caught-stealing is a caught-stealing!

Oakland got the scoring started first in this one. The bottom of the third saw Lawrence Butler, JJ Bleday and Brent Rooker all collected doubles, with Bleday and Rooker’s knocks bringing in a couple runs:

Rooker’s RBI double:

Given a 2-run lead, Joey Estes could do himself a huge favor and get a shutdown inning to keep the momentum on Oakland’s side. Instead two singles, a HBP and sac fly brought in Los Angeles’ first run of the day to cut the lead in half. One inning later and Angels center fielder Mickey Monika swatted a solo home run to tie this game.

While the Angels collected the first homer of the day, it didn’t take long for the A’s to hit their own as Miguel Andujar launched his own solo shot in the bottom half of the fourth:

That was Andujar’s fourth blast of the season. If not for an early injury Andujar would probably already be in the double digits.

Given yet another lead, Estes was allowed to go out for the sixth inning and got the first two outs but a walk and single prompted a move to the bullpen, ending Estes’ day after 97 pitches.

-Joey Estes: 5 ²⁄₃ IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 97 pitches

That’s how Estes wanted and needed to start the second half. It feels like so long ago that the rookie tossed a complete game shutout but that was only a couple starts ago. There was the implosion in Boston but you could chalk that up to him being under the weather as Mark Kotsay claimed. With Blackburn and Boyle finishing up their rehab assignments the team might have a hard choice to make if Estes keeps this up. Not a bad problem to have though. TJ McFarland took over and tossed 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings.

The A’s got some help collecting their insurance later in the game. A bases-loaded walk brought in Oakland’s fourth run and a wild pitch brought in the fifth. Thanks for the free runs!

That was the high point for the good guys today. Los Angeles began mounting a comeback attempt in the top of the eighth against setup man Lucas Erceg. Two singles, a walk, a HBP and a run later and Mark Kotsay had seen enough, turning to lefty Scott Alexander to escape the jam. Instead this game got away as LA scored four more times in the inning. What was one a 5-2 lead was now a 7-5 deficit. Not ideal.

The Angels would add on an insurance run in the ninth but it didn’t really matter as the Athletics went down 1-2-3 in the eighth and got just one walk in the ninth before getting the door shut. Tough to battle back against that momentum.

Oh well. Two out of three is always nice. Estes showed up again. The bats worked over the Angels pitching. And if not for a massive bullpen collapse the Athletics would have collected another sweep. Alas, today it was not meant to be. And that will be the final time the Los Angeles Angels take the field at the Coliseum.

The club will now welcome fellow division rival Houston for another 3-game series. It’ll be lefty Hogan Harris getting the ball for the Green & Gold while the Astros will counter with Spencer Arrighetti on their side. Could be a good pitching matchup.