by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oaktown boys had another tough night Friday in Anaheim as they lost again to the Los Angeles Angels 4-0. The A’s sent their ace, John Lester, to pitch for them and while he pitched well, it was not enough to right the ship. The Angels had their ace, Jered Weaver, going for them and Weaver went seven innings allowing just three hits and no runs. The A’s now have their work cut out for them as they are now three games back of the Angels and with two games left in this series, the A’s will leave Anaheim 5 games back if they lose the next two, three games back if they split the two games or one game back if they win both. Jeff Samardzija will pitch Saturday against TBA and Scott Kazmir goes on Sunday against Matt Shoemaker.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning. The Angels got two runs in the bottom of the fifth when Erick Aybar led off with a single. The next batter Chris Ianneta, hit a fly ball to deep

left center field. The A’s center Fielder, Coco Crisp, made a valiant effort to make a leaping catch as the ball was going over the fence. Crisp jumped as high as he could and he actually caught the ball in his glove but his momentum carried him full force into the wall causing him to drop to the ground. He was not able to keep the ball in his glove and it fell to the ground for a two run home run. Coco was

visibly shaken up on the play and was in a lot of pain. Bob Melvin and the team trainer raced out to center field and Coco had to leave the game.

The Angels scored another run in the sixth as the A’s made two errors in the inning and the Halos were able to load the bases with two out. Lester walked Chris Ianneta to force in the run. Lester was done for the night going six innings allowing four hits and three runs one of which was unearned. Evan Scribner came in to pitch the seventh and with two out, future Hall of Fame player, Albert Pujols, blasted his 24th home run of the year to left field. For Pujols, it was his 516th home run of his fantastic career.

Joe Smith pitched the eighth and Huston Street pitched the ninth for the Angels to secure the win.

Final score 4-0 in favor of the Halos.

Notes: Jon Lester took the loss and his record for the year is now 13-9. The Angels’ Jered Weaver picked up the win and is now 15-7 for the season. The A’s will now have their first losing month since May 2012 ending a streak of fourteen consecutive winning months. They are 12-15 for August with two games left to play this month.

After the game, Coco Crisp, when asked about the play that he almost made on the ball that went over the fence, said “ just tried to time it…hit the wall and caught it but didn’t know if I had it until I dropped down.” He also said “ we’re going through a rough stretch right now but we’ve been playing hard.”

A’s manager Bob Melvin echoed that when he said”things aren’t going our way right now.” When asked about Lester’s performance he “ though he did real good.”

The A’s need to get the offense going. Now that Yoenis Cespedes is in Boston, it is imperative to other players to pick up the slack as managers around the league are not going to pitch to Josh Donaldson.

Donaldson has been hot in his last five games going 8 for 16 but Weaver would not give Josh anything to hit in the sixth inning when Donaldson had a man in scoring position. Weaver ended up walking him

to prevent him from doing any damage.

Game three of the four game series will be played Saturday night at 6:05pm