by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s lost the final home game of the year to the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 Wednesday at the O.co Coliseum. The A’s needed a win to either stay even with the Kansas City Royals or take the lead in the race for the number one Wild Card spot that would give them the opportunity to have the play-in game played here in Oakland. The A’s lost so things changed slightly. If the KC Royals should lose their game, the two teams would be tied and KC holds the tiebreaker. That means that The Royals will host the one game playoff. At the time of this writing, the Indians took a 5-4 lead after five innings complete.

The A’s ace, Jon Lester , was the choice to start and his mission was to stop the Angels. He pitched well but the Angels take a 3-0 lead after three innings and the A’s defense collapsed giving the Angels two unearned runs to put them in a 5-0 hole. The A’s rallied for four in the bottom of the seventh but they could not break through against the Angels bullpen and it was another tough loss for the Green and Gold.

The Angels didn’t get a double to lead off the game Wednesday as they did in the first two games but that did not stop them from scoring a run in the first inning. Angels wunderkind, Mike Trout singled with one out. He then stole second and was driven in on a Howie Kendrick single to give the Angels an early 1-0 lead.

The Angels took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Kole Calhoun singled and that was followed by doubles by Albert Pojuls and Howie Kendrick. Kendrick has driven in the all three Angel runs.

A key play occurred in the bottom of the fourth. Josh Donaldson reached on a three base error when Mike Trout dropped his fly ball in center field with no out. Jonny Gomes popped out and that was followed by a short fly ball to short right field. Donaldson, trying to inject some life into the A’s offense, tagged up and sprinted for home. The throw came up the line and it looked like Donaldson avoided the tag but he slid past home and really hustled to get to the plate safely but he was called out. The play is explained in the notes below.

The Angels scored an unearned run in the fifth. Luis Jimenez led off with double and advanced to third when usually reliable Josh Reddick dropped a fly ball for an error that allowed Jimenez to advance to third. Albert Pujols hit a sacrifice fly to right and Jimenez scored. 4-0 in the middle of the fifth.

The Angels scored another unearned run in the 7th. Gordon Beckham singled to start things off for the Halos. Colin Cowgill laid down a bunt that Josh Donaldson threw past first base and down the right field line allowing Beckham to score all the way from first. Cowgill was out trying to make it to third. The play was ruled a single, error on Donaldson and the putout at third went 4-6. Angels own a 5-0 lead with the A’s coming up to hit.

The A’s finally got something going. Derek Norris and Jed Lowrie singled to put men on first and third.

Josh Reddick doubled to drive both of them in. The next batter, Nick Punto, tripled to drive in Reddick with the third run of the inning with one out. After a pitching change, Coco crisp singled to drive in Punto with the A’s fourth run of the inning. Adam Dunn, pinch hitting for Callaspo, struck out to end the inning. A’s trail 5-4 after seven complete.

The Angels bullpen was up to the task and they kept the A’s from scoring in the eighth and ninth to win 5-4.

Game notes- The A’s lost their 26th one-run game of the season which is the most by an A’s team in the last 27 years. The A’s finished the regular season with a total home attendance of 2,003,628. First time since the 2005 season that the A’s reached the 2 million mark. Jon Lester took the loss and his record is now 16-11 for the year and his ERA was 2.46 which is the best of his career. Josh Reddick went 2 for 4 and was 9 for 16 on the home stand.

After the game A’s Manager Bob Melvin said that the play on which Josh Donaldson was tagged out on a play that looked like the catcher missed the tag. Melvin did not have to ask for a review as the umpires decided to look at the entire play which included rule 7.1.3 which looked to see if the catcher blocked the lane as well as the missed tag. If Melvin asked for the review, the only thing the umps could have considered was the tag. In any case, the call was sustained and Donaldson was out. That play turned out to be huge. Had he scored the A’s would have tied the game in the seventh and who knows how the game would have turned out.

The A’s are now ½ game behind Kansas City. Kansas City plays Cleveland later. A win for KC will give them a one game lead and a loss will keep the A’s tied with them for the first Wild Card spot.

The A’s travel to Texas for the final four games of the season. Jason Hammel will pitch against Colby Lewis. Scott Kazmir goes on Friday. Jeff Samardzija on Saturday and Sonny Gray on Sunday. If the A’s make the playoffs, Jon Lester will go for the A’s as they hope to advance to the AL Division Series which will be against the Angels.

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Jerry Feitelberg
jyf1938