Photo courtesy of Oakland Athletics Twitter. Ruiz, Butler, and Rooker celebrate in center field their victory over the Angels.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

OAKLAND- The A’s started their three-game home series against the Angels on a great note with a 9-2 win.

Tonight for the A’s was Glen Burke pride night at the coliseum and the attendance was 12,073.

Getting the start for the A’s was J.P. Sears who heading into this game had a 2-11 record and 4.73 era. While the Angels had Patrick Sandoval get the start who coming had a 7-10 record with a 3.89 era.

Making his major league debut tonight for the Angels at shortstop was 21 year-old Kyren Paris. He was drafted in 2019 and was picked in the second round at 55th overall.

The first went by smoothly for Sandoval while Sears had some troubles as he gave up a double and walked one but was able to get out of the inning allowing no runs.

Quickly though Sandoval found his pitch count getting high as by the end of the third inning he had already thrown 63 pitches. That pitch count was indicative of a lot of early at bats that consistently went to full counts and occasionally resulted in walks given up.

The defense for the A’s was clicking early as they turned two double plays before the fifth inning had even occurred.

The fourth saw Oaklands offense come alive as Brent Rooker lead things off with a double. Jordan Diaz followed that up with a single putting runners on the corners with only one out. The other DÍaz got a double bringing home Rooker and getting the A’s on the board. The momentum didn’t stop there as Nick Allen got another run in on a sac fly and Esteury Ruiz singled putting runners on the corners once again.

After the hit by Ruiz that ended the night for Sandoval who was replaced by Jimmy Herget. The stat-line for Sandoval is probably one he’ll want to forget as he only went 3.2 innings giving up five hits, five earned runs, and three walks.

Herget wasn’t able to stop the bleeding as Zack Gelof kept the lineup moving with a two-run double making it 5-0. Trying to keep adding on Ryan Noda came in to pinch hit for Carlos Pérez but he ended up lining out to end the fourth. Noda would stay in taking Pérez’s spot at first base.

The Angels in the sixth made another pitching change as Gerardo Reyes came in to replace Herget who was only making his sixth appearance of the season.

In the following inning the A’s made a change on the mound as well as Lucas Erceg came in making his 41st appearance. Unlike Sandoval, Sears had a stellar outing pitching six innings, giving up no earned runs, and striking out three. Erceg also got some help from the defense as they turned another double play their third of the game.

Looking for insurance the A’s got another run from Jordan Diaz who made it 6-0 with a double. The run came in the seventh with Jamie Barria pitching now for the Halos.

The eighth would see another new pitcher as Sean Newcomb came in to pitch for the A’s who was making only his fourth appearance of the season.

Newcomb would run into some trouble as Shohei Ohtani reached on a pitch-clock violation and then Brandon Drury got a double making it 6-1.

With Barria still on the mound for the Angels Allen got a single and then Ruiz absolutely crushed a 2-0 pitch to left field making it 8-1. It was Ruiz’s third home run of the season and exited the field at 104.1 mph. A Gelof double kept things going and Noda followed it up with a double of his own extending their lead to 9-1.

To close things out the A’s called on Spencer Patton and the first batter he faced took him deep to left field as Tyler O’Hoppe got his sixth home run of the season. Patton was able to fight through the early mistake and closed the inning out giving up only the one run.

Of note tonight was Jordan Diaz who went 3-4 with an rbi and Ruiz who went 3-5 with two rbis and a home run. Getting the win was J.P. Sears which improves his record to 3-11 and Sandoval took the loss bringing his record to 7-11.

The second game of this home series against the Angels happens tomorrow at 1:07 p.m.