by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The Los Angeles Angels were driving hard but had hit a bump in the road in the first half of the year but their bull pen is excellent and they got hot again since the All-Star break and when the Oakland A’s came to Anaheim this past weekend that tide turned as the Halos swept the Athletics in four and have a 4.5 game lead on the second place A’s.

The Angels dealt Ernesto Frieri for Jason Grilli from the Pirates and since the deal nine days ago the Angels manager Mike Scoscia’s bullpen has been going well and there’s been a big difference with pitcher Mike Shoemaker who now has 14 wins as a rookie and he’ll be 29 years old this month. Shoemaker has been the difference and remember the Angels lost their big pitcher Garrett Richards and they lost lefty Tyler Skaggs and for the Angels there’s 25-26 games left.Now in September everybody is playing everybody and with that kind of race that’s going on this month anything can happen.

The A’s Adam Dunn set the stage with that home run in the first inning and came through on Monday in his first ever at bat as an Athletic for what would be the game winner over the M’s it was Dunn’s 21st homer of the season. The A’s during the Anaheim series their offense had been dead and the A’s had nothing to lose in making the deal and they had to do something for an offense that had been dead. Brandon Moss as of tonight is not in the line up he has he has four hits in the last 40 games and Moss is hitting .100.

The A’s needed someone to do something in this line up and Dunn hit that two run home run at the beginning of the game and it was the game winning runs as it turned out, so he’s a veteran who announced he’s going to retire after this season and he’s never been to the post season and it’s win-win for both sides. Manager Bob Melvin in spite of the recent struggles in the A’s line up has to stick with some of the guys. These guys were winning in the first half Josh Donaldson and Jed Lowrie are back and you need Coco Crisp in this line up.

The A’s are hoping that when they get into the post season that Crisp will be ready and you have to and the Seattle Mariners threw one of their toughest pitchers to start on Tuesday night James Paxton 4-1 ERA 1.83. Donaldson was in the line up and Moss is not in the line up Tuesday night and it’s a good time to bench him he’s currently hitting .243 but that long drought over his last 40 at bats have pretty much put him on the shelf.

The A’s are starting left handed hitters against a left handed pitcher who own the M’s the last few years and the A’s have to keep staying with what’s best in the line up and Melvin is an excellent manager and this happens to every team you go through these slumps and that last weekend in Anaheim they looked really flat but you have to give credit to the Angels they played hard ball and played very aggressive they’ve taken the extra base and the A’s are doing everything.

Erick Eybar is doing everything in L.A. with the longest hitting streak of his career and that’s the way things are happening. The A’s still have to face Seattle who are just a hair out of the wild card a 1.5 games back in the wild card. The M’s are playing a huge role in the A.L. West and the M’s have seven games left with the Angels.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com