Oakland Athletics pitcher Daniel Gossett (48) in action during the first inning of a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, on August 28, 2017, played at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)

by Jerry Feitelberg

Anaheim- the Los Angeles Angels beat the A’s 3-1 in the first game of the three-game series in Anaheim Monday night. The A’s Daniel Gossett, who had a bad outing in his last start against Baltimore, pitched very well. The A’s offense, however, did not give him much support as they had just four hits in the game and A’s hitters struck out fourteen times against the four pitchers used by the Angels. The A’s had their chances but failed to execute as they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The Angels’ starter, Andrew Heaney, who had Tommy John surgery in 2016 was making his third start of the season, and it was a beauty. Heaney went six innings and allowed just two hits, one of which was Dustin Garneau’s solo homer in the third inning.

The Angels put one on the board in the first inning. Cameron Maybin doubled leading off for LA. Gossett retired the next two hitters, but Kole Calhoun singled to drive in Maybin. The A’s tied the game on Garneau’s home run. It was the first for Garneau as a member of the Athletics and fourth of his career as he had three with the Colorado Rockies.

The Angels grabbed the lead for good in the fourth. Angels’ catcher Martin Maldonado singled to get the rally going. Second baseman Kaleb Cowart doubled over Khris Davis’ head in left field to put the Angels up 2-1.

There was no more scoring until the bottom of the seventh. Maldonado led off the inning with his third hit of the night, a single to left field. Gossett retired the next two hitters but could not retire Ben Revere. Revere doubled to right field. The throw from Matt Joyce to Marcus Semien went awry, and that miscue allowed Maldonado to cross the plate with a huge insurance run for the Angels. A’s manager Bob Melvin removed Gossett from the game and brought in Ryan Dull to get the final out of the inning.

Blake Parker picked up the save for LA as he struck out Ryon Healy, allowed a walk to Boog Powell, then struck out Matt Chapman and Matt Joyce to end the game.

Game Notes- Daniel Gossett’s line for the night was six and 2/3rds innings of work. He allowed eight hits and three runs, one of which was unearned. He threw a career high of 103 pitches.

The Angels improve to 67-65, and with the win, they picked up a half-game on the Minnesota Twins in the race for the second Wild Card slot in the American League.  The Twins, who were idle Monday night, lead the Angel by just one game.

Game two of the three-game series will be played Tuesday night at 7:05 pm. Chris Smith with a record of 0-3 will pitch for Oakland and Troy Scribner (2-1) will throw for LA. Scribner is the brother of Evan Scribner who used to pitch for Oakland.

Time of game was two hours and 53 minutes, and there was a nice crowd of 33,719 watching the Angels win.