Angels score 6 in the 10th, denying A’s their first home sweep in West Sac
A rousing start to a home-finale series against the Anaheim Angels unraveled in the 10th inning for the Athletics on Sunday afternoon in West Sacramento.
An entertaining, back-and-forth game was reduced to an onslaught for the Angels, who piled on six runs in the extra inning to prevail 11-5 at Sutter Health Park in front of 8,876 sun-drenched fans, thus preventing the A’s from sweeping their first home series in just over a year, when the club was in the midst of their final season in Oakland.
The A’s did win the series against the Angels, who entered the weekend 7-0 in head-to-head meeting this season, but the finale sucked the joy out of the weekend.
The A’s won the first two games 10-3 and 7-2, and they put runners on first and second base with no outs in the ninth with a chance to secure their 14th win after trailing in the eighth or ninth inning. They had been tied with the Seattle Mariners for second-most victories of that sort entering Sunday.
The A’s loaded the bases with two outs, but hard-throwing, 6-foot-5, 265-pound reliever Kenley Jansen got out of the jam and then seized the game.
“We had the right guys up, the best hitters in our lineup,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told media after the game. “I don’t know what the probabilities of scoring a run (are in that situation), but I think it’s pretty high. With Shea (Langeliers), with Rook (Brent Rooker) and with Sody (Tyler Soderstrom), they’ve our best bats. And unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the hit there to take the game in the ninth, and then things got away from us in the 10th inning, a lead-off walk.”
Kotsay continued, “Any time you get in that situation in the 10th, it’s tough to shut that inning down. There’s a lot of momentum. I like the fight. I like that we got back in the game. I really do.”
Tight from the get-go before the fall
The Angels took a 3-0 lead in the first inning off a three-run home run by Joe Adell, and the A’s tied it in the third when Nick Kurtz and Langeliers smashed back-to-back home runs.
Lawrence Butler’s 417-foot homer to right center pulled the A’s to within 5-4 in the sixth, and Luis Urias tied it at 5-5 with a base hit to right, scoring Brett Harris. Adell singled to center to score Mike Trout for a 6-5 lead in the 10th, and Zach Neto’s 436th homer to left center made it 11-5 a moment later.
Adell had four RBI for Anaheim and Christian Moore three.
A’s Long ball misery
The A’s surrendered two homers on Sunday, making it 178 the team has yielded this season, the second most in the majors. The A’s are on pace to break the club’s single-season record of 220 homers allowed, set by the 1964 Kansas City A’s.
The 102 home runs the A’s have given up at Sutter Health Park are the most by any team in MLB at home this season. It also marks the fifth time in franchise history that the A’s have surrendered at least 100 bombs in their home park.
If this trend holds, it will mark the fifth time the A’s have given up the most home runs by a big-league club at home in a season. The other four times were when the A’s played in Kansas City at Municipal Stadium: 110 homers allowed in 1955, 113 in 1956, 118 in 1962 and 132 in 1964.
On deck
The A’s open a three-game series at the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.
The Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 8-1 Sunday when Brooks Lee had a grand slam to highlight a six-run third inning to prevent a four-game series sweep.
Minnesota is 58-66 and sits in fourth place in the American League Central. The A’s are 56-70, good for fifth in the AL West.
The A’s started their first season in West Sacramento 22-20, then lost 20 of 21 games from May 14 to June 4. The team was 16-12 since entering the All-Star Break and entering Sunday had won five of seven.
Starting Friday, the A’s play a three-game set in Seattle and return to West Sacramento on Aug. 25 for a three-game series against the Tigers.