Mariners score two in tenth to down A’s 6-5; Oakland’s third straight loss

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The Seattle Mariners Donavon Walton takes the Oakland A’s deep in the eighth inning as he hits one into the right field bleachers with A’s right fielder Seth Brown (15) watching it go at T Mobile Park in Seattle on Mon May 31, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s (31-25) started a six-game road trip in Seattle Monday afternoon at the T-Mobile Stadium. The A’s were hoping to snap a two-game losing streak but it was not to be as the A’s lost in extra innings at T Mobile Park in Seattle 6-5.

The Seattle Mariners (28-27) had taken two out of three from the A’s last week. Oakland’s starter, James Kaprielian, earned his second big-league win downing the M’s at the Coliseum. The M’s sent righty Logan Gilbert to the hill. Gilbert had not yet recorded his first win in the Majors.

The A’s scored the first run of the game in the top of the third inning. Chad Pinder, sporting a new haircut and playing shortstop, doubled to lead off the inning. With two out, Gilbert issued a free pass to Matt Olson. Jed Lowrie followed with a ground-rule double. Pinder scored, Olson stopped at third. Gibert struck out Seth Brown for the third out. The A’s were ahead 1-0 in the third.

The M’s plated four runs in the bottom of the fourth. M’s shortstop, J.P.Crawford led off with a single. Rightfielder Jake Fraley singled to put men on at first and second with no out. Jose Godoy hit into a 3-6-1 double play.

Crawford went to third. Kaprielian had a chance to get out of the inning with no damage if he could retire the M’s DH, Jacob Nottingham. Kaprielian, who had hit Kyle Seager with a pitch in the third, hit Nottingham to put two men on with two out.

The next hitter was Donovan Walton. Walton was hitting way under the Mendoza line for the season. However, as baseball fans know, even guys with low batting averages can hit the ball out of the park. Walton sent Kaprielian’s fastball into the seats into the right-field seats make it 3-1.

Kaprielian then walked Jarred Kelenic and gave up a double to Kyle Lewis. Kelenic scored, and A’s manager Bob Melvin brought in Deolis Guerra to pitch. Guerra retired Seager for the third out. The M’s led 4-1 after four.

The A’s bullpen did a stellar job keeping the M’s off the board. Oakland plated a run in the sixth. Pinder led off the frame with his second double of the game. Matt Olson doubled to drive in Pinder to make it a 4-2 game. Guerra retired all seven batters he faced. Sergio Romo set the M’s down in order in the seventh.

Oakland tied the game in the top of the eighth. Lefty Anthony Misiewicz was on the hill for Seattle. Mark Canha reached on a walk. Matt Olson followed with a single. Canha went to third when Kelenic could not field the ball properly. Misiewicz struck out Lowrie and Brown.

M’s manager Scott Servais brought in righty J.T. Chargois to face Sean Murphy. The home plate umpire called a balk on Chargois that allowed Canha to score. Olson went to second. Murphy doubled to drive in Olson with the A’s fourth run of the game. The A’s bullpen kept the Mariners off the board the next two innings. The game ended tied at 4-4 after nine innings of play.

With the new extra-innings rules in effect in the tenth, Matt Olson was at second with no out. M’s reliever Daniel Zamora retired Lowrie and Stephen Piscotty, who was pinch-hitting for Brown. Aramis Garcia singled to drive in Olson with the A’s fifth run of the day.

The A’s brought in Lou Trivino to pitch the tenth. Jack Mayfield was on second base to start the inning. Trivino retired Kyle Seager for the first out. M’s first baseman. Ty France singled to tie the game at 5-5. J.P. Crawford hit a screamer that somehow bounced over Matt Olson’s glove to went down the right-field line for a double. France advanced to third on the play. M’s catcher Tom Murphy drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly. Seattle wins 6-5.

Game Notes and Stats- With the loss, the A’s drop to 31-25 for the season. It was their third loss in a row. The Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox in Houston and moved with 1/2 game of the lead in the American League West. The Mariners won their fifth game in a row to extend their winning streak to five. They are 28-27 for the year.

The hitting star for the A’s was Chad Pinder. Pinder had two doubles and a single Monday afternoon. Each team used six pitchers. Lou Trivino was the losing pitcher. Daniel Zamora picked up the win.

Kaprielian, who went seven innings against the M’s last week in Oakland, lasted three and 2/3rds innings Monday afternoon. He allowed four runs and five hits. He had control issues as he walked three batters and hit two. He recorded three strikeouts. M’s starter Logan Gilbert gave the M’s a quality start. He pitched six innings and gave up two runs, and allowed five hits. He struck out five and walked one.

The A’s will send Chris Bassitt to the hill Tuesday night. Bassitt shut out the Angels last week in Oakland. He had his first complete game ever. Bassitt is 5-2 with an ERA of 3.21. Lefty Marco Gonzales will be making his first start since April 27th. The game will start at 7:1- pm.

The time of the game was three hours and thirty-four minutes. Eleven thousand one hundred twelve fans were in attendance.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips: Angels-Giants open two game series today at Oracle Park

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LaMonte Wade arrives at first base after hitting a single against the Colorado Rockies in second inning as he talks things over with first base coach Antoan Richardson (00) on Apr 11, 2021. Wade had played first base on Fri May 28th in Los Angeles from his usual outfield position (file photo from the San Francisco Chronicle)

On the Giants podcast with Morris:

#1 Morris talk a little about the addition of the San Francisco Giants LaMonte Wade who was put into the role of first baseman on Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Wade normally is a lead off hitter and plays outfield. Wade scored twice and had a hit and two walks to help the Giants in an extra inning 8-5 win.

#2 The Giants have three first baseman who were hurt in the Dodgers series in LA, Brandon Belt who out with a oblique strain, Darin Ruf out with a hamstring and Wilmer Flores just returned on Saturday night from a hamstring injury.

#3 Giants manager Gabe Kapler talking about the Ruf and Flores injuries saying that hamstrings are tricky and said the team doesn’t want to go to far out in advance. The Flores return Saturday was observed by Kapler and the training staff as Flores got through the game alright. Flores he had some good at bats during his return on Saturday three at bats, three hits, two runs scored, one RBI.

#4 The Giants Austin Slater and Mauricio Dubon took Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw deep which helped the Giants just get by the Dodgers 5-4 Sunday and take three out of four from LA in the series.

#5 It’s back to Oracle Park for a Memorial Day game as the Los Angeles Angels come to San Francisco to open up a two game interleague series with the Giants. Pitching match ups for the Angels and Giants have not been announced as of Monday morning yet. Morris set this series up for us.

Join Morris for the Giants podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara Mason: A’s open up three game series in Seattle tonight

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The Oakland A’s Mark Canha (20) seen here after scoring on a double by Matt Olson against the Los Angeles Angels on Sat May 22, 2021. Canha has a career high of being hit by pitches 64 times most recently by Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani on Fri May 28, 2021 at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara Mason:

#1 The Oakland A’s just wrapped up their series against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday but all the talk in this series focused on pitcher Shohei Ohtani who pitch into the seventh innings against the A’s on Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum in game 2 and when went up and inside on A’s batter Mark Canha which nearly started a bench clearing brawl. Disclaimer no punches were thrown.

#2 In Canha’s next at bat he was hit by Ohtani and Ohtani went down on the mound to show Canha no hard feelings and nothing intentional. Ohtani was not tossed out of the game and Canha peacefully took his base. The hit by was Canha’s 64th career.

#3 Kind of a unusual pomp and circumstance on Thursday night when Ohtani was suppose to pitch but arrived late to the ball park saying traffic was so bad on the Bay Bridge that he took BART which he said was late. After checking with BART there were no delays going to the Coliseum from the San Francisco on Thursday afternoon.

#4 The A’s after taking the first two games of the four game series faced Angels pitcher Alex Cobb in game 3 on Saturday. Cobb pitched seven innings of three hit shutout ball against the A’s before being lifted and the A’s who couldn’t Cobb out lost it 4-0. The A’s hit only .209 during the four game series.

#5 The A’s open a three game series in Seattle tonight at T Mobile Field a 1:10 pm Memorial Day first pitch. The last time the A’s and Mariners met back on May 24-26 the Mariners took the series two out of three. The A’s won the third game 6-3 on May 26th A’s pitcher James Kaprielian started and went seven innings and gave up two hits.

Join Barbara each Monday for the A’s podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s shut down by the Angels for the second straight day in a 4-2 loss

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND– Well, the A’s could use a couple of improvements.

Replace a broken glass panel on the club level. Get a few more less socially-distanced bodies in the stands. And maybe an extra productive bat or two for the struggling lineup.

Yeah, an extra bat or two.

One day after being shut out by the Angels, the A’s were stymied again unable to bust up a two-run deficit in any of the final six innings of a frustrating 4-2 loss in Sunday’s series finale.

Possibly the low point stretching across all nine frames: the A’s failed to register a knockout blow on Jose Quintana, the Angels starter who entered with no wins and a bloated ERA, but escaped a 37-pitch, third inning and two bases-loaded situations without allowing a hit. Unbeknownst to the A’s, Quintana pitched the inning with a shoulder injury that would force him to depart early.

“Going into the eighth we only had two hits,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Offensively, it’s not enough. The last couple of games we had some opportunities. Just didn’t come through as much as we’d like to.”

The A’s tallied three hits Saturday and four on Sunday. A pair of doubles prevented the club from suffering the rarity of three, consecutive games without an extra-base hit, last done in 1980. For a club that has 70 home runs in 55 games, and regularly comes up with the big hit, the last two games veered too far from the game plan.

Since their captivating 13-game win streak, the A’s are a middling 15-15. If not for the tepid pace of the AL West race thus far, they’d be looking up at the competition. Instead, a 31-24 record still has them in first place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Astros. A road trip to Seattle and Denver to see the NL Rockies doesn’t seem like a bad idea right now. The A’s home-heavy schedule thus far hasn’t paid dividends; they’re 17-17 at home.

“We feel like we have a couple more wins maybe that we should have at this point,” Melvin said. “It seems like we get to right at a chance to go 10 games over .500, and we’ve been up against that a couple of times and lost.”

Of course, one team’s rough afternoon can be another team’s gem. For the Angels, desperate to survive Mike Trout’s absence, seeing the best of Quintana’s nine starts as an Angel was part of their good news. His injury situation is a concern, but reliever Jose Suarez picked Quintana up with three, flawless innings of relief to secure the win. That gave the Angels a split of the four-game set, critical for a club that has recently underperformed in relation to their lesser paid rivals in the Bay.

“Kind of a nicely intense game, intense series. I loved it,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “We have to know we can win here.”

Three relievers followed Suarez, and they also were effective, combining to strike out four, issue no walks, and scatter–if you will–a pair of hits. The A’s fans–over 10,000 in number for the first time in 2021–fidgeted in the absence of excitement. That, and flinched when Juan Legares’ foul ball took out a chunk of a window panel on the second level restaurant area.

Workers were forced to quickly knock out all the remaining glass when it continued to fall and cause a hazard. Another fable for the encyclopedia of the Coliseum, now 47 seasons and counting, and a bargaining chip for the club, still publicly seeking a new home in Oakland or elsewhere.

Cole Irvin went six innings as the starter for the A’s. Most of that was damage control, and he was effective in that role, departing with the A’s still in reach, down two runs. But the second inning was his downfall, as the Angels took what he offered, a couple of off-speed pitches were hit pretty good, starting with his 74 mph curveball that Jared Walsh deposited over the right field wall, and his 77 mph curve that Phil Gosselin got a hold of for a RBI single.

In between those two, David Fletcher doubled home a pair of runs on a 82 mph slider. Not surprisingly, those three pitches were among the four slowest Irvin threw in the inning.

“I just need to get on my fastball a little bit sooner,” Irvin said. “Sean (Murphy) and I talked in between innings and we got back on the fastball. It’s just stuff that is maybe a learning experience.”

The A’s start a three-game series in Seattle on Memorial Day with James Kaprelian trying to make it three straight in a matchup with Logan Gilbert at 1:10pm.

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs podcast with Matt Harrington: Lightning vs.Hurricanes and Knights vs. Avalanche in game 1 Sunday

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Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Luke Schenn (2) congratulates center Barclay Goodrow, right, along with defenseman Victor Hedman (77), center Yanni Gourde (37) and center Blake Coleman (20) on Goodrow’s crucial goal that put the Lightning ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period in Carolina (AP News photo)

On the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs podcast with Matt:

#1 The Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes open up the best of seven round two of the playoffs today in Carolina. The Hurricanes are coming off a 4-2 series win against Nashville Predators in a game 6, 4-3 win. The Lighting won this rather handedly 2-1.

#2 Matt, talk about the Lightning’s Barclay Goodrow and Braydon Point who both scored for the Tampa Bay today.

#3 Talk about game two between the Bolts and Canes Tuesday for game 2 any pressure on the Hurricanes as this one is on home ice for Carolina down 0-1.

#4 The Vegas Golden Knights have had a very impressive post season their coming off a 6-2 win against the Minnesota Wild taking a 4-3 series first round win.

#5 The Colorado Avalanche are coming off a four game sweep over the St Louis Blues they’ve been off since Sunday 7 full days off will that handicap them going into a series with a team like the Golden Knights?

Join Matt for the Stanley Cup Playoff podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NBA Playoffs podcast with Joe Hawkes: A look at Knicks-Hawks, Sun-Lakers, Nets-Celtics, Clippers-Mavericks

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The Atlanta Hawks forward John Collins (20) is fouled trying to make a basket by the New York Knicks forward Taj Gibson (67) on Sun May 30, 2021 in Atlanta in game 4 of the NBA Playoffs (AP News photo)

J Hawkes on the NBA podcast takes a look at today’s playoffs games:

#1 New York Knicks 96 @ Atlanta Hawks 113 game 4 Atlanta leads the series 3-1

#2 Phoenix Suns 100 @ Los Angeles 92 Lakers game 4 series is tied 2-2

#3 Brooklyn Nets @ Boston Celtics game 4

#4 Los Angeles Clippers @ Dallas Mavericks game 4

Joe Hawkes does the NBA podcasts each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Aces blow out Fever for second straight game, 101-78

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Photo credit: Shawn McCullough/Sports Radio Service

By Shawn McCullough

The Aces took care of business for a second straight game against the Indiana Fever with a 101-78 win at Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay.

“We are making great progress offensively,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “We are going to score points, but the question is can we stop someone on defense consistently.”

Liz Cambage dropped a double-double, scoring 13 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, while also blocking five shots.

“All I am focused on is rebounding and blocking shots,” said Cambage.

Dearica Hamby led the Aces with 22 points, while A’ja Wilson added 15.

“I was able to run,” said Hamby. “That gets me going and I think that gets the whole team going.”

With the win, the Aces improved to 3-0 against teams below .500.

“Indiana is a young team and they are trying to find their way,” said Laimbeer. “You need to win your home games and we took care of business.”

The Aces improved to 5-2 on the season heading into their next game on Tuesday in Connecticut against the Sun.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

  • The Aces shot 56.7% from the field, while holding Indiana to 38.8%.
  • Las Vegas has now won three straight games.
  • Destiny Slocum returned to the lineup from concussion protocol.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 3 Riquna Williams
C – 8 Liz Cambage
G – 0 Jackie Young
G – 12 Chelsea Gray

Aces Injury Report:

Angel McCoughtry—Out, right ACL
Kelsey Plum—Out, USA Basketball 3×3

Dubon and Slater go deep against Kershaw in Giants win 5-4

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The San Francisco Giants Mauricio Dubon connects for a two run home run in the top of the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles Sun May 30, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jeremy Kahn

After being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers last weekend at Oracle Park, and then losing the opener on Thursday night, people were probably thinking, this season will change immediately.

Fortunately for Giants fans it changed in a good way, as the Giants scored three runs in the top of the first inning, with the big blow, being a two-run home run by Mauricio Dubon and the Giants hung on late to defeat the Dodgers 5-4 at Dodger Stadium. With the victory, the Giants won three out of four in the series and are now a season-high 13 games over .500.

Flores, who hit his third home run of the season hit the first pitch he saw from Clayton Kershaw and planted it off the left field foul pole. It was the second career home run for Flores against Kershaw, and both home runs hit the left field foul pole at Dodger Stadium.

The first Flores home run came on September 6, 2019 off of Kershaw, and joins Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Austin Slater as Giants who have multiple home runs off of Kershaw.

Los Angeles area native Evan Longoria, who grew up in Downey before going to Cal State Long Beach drove in the first Giants run of the afternoon, as he grounded out to Gavin Lux to score Slater.

When the Giants scored three runs off of Kershaw in the first inning, it marked the first time that they scored three or more against him in the first inning.

Slater joined that club with Posey, Bumgarner and Flores as players who have hit two or more home runs against Kershaw, as he hit his seventh home run of the season over the center field in the top of the third inning.

Kevin Gausman continues to show why he is now the ace of the Giants pitching staff, as he went six innings, allowing just two hits, walking no one and striking out seven on his way to his sixth win of the season against zero losses.

Gausman also helped himself out at the plate, as he drove an opposite field single to left field in the top of the fourth inning that scored Dubon to lengthen the Giants lead up to 5-0.

The right-hander will get an MRI on his hip, that has been an issue for a few weeks and felt it on the base hit and then again on the great play that ended the sixth inning.

It was a tough day for Kershaw, as he went six innings, allowing five runs on seven hits, walking three and striking out six and allowed two home runs, as his record fell to 7-4 on the season.

Things were rolling for the Giants, as they entered the bottom of the eighth inning, when new nemesis, Max Muncy hit a two-run home run off of Zack Littell to narrow the Giants lead down to 5-2.

It was the fifth home run for Muncy in a single-season six game span versus the Giants, as he joins Paul Lo Duca in 2001, and Reggie Smith (2 overlapping spans), this according to Sarah Langs on Sports.

The home run for Muncy was the 100th career home run of his career, and he his third home run of the series.

Jake McGee closed it out for the Giants, as he picked up his 12th save of the season, despite the fact that he allowed a two-run home run to Albert Pujols, as the future Hall-of-Famer hit a ball that landed in the Dodger bullpen.

It was the eighth home run of the season for Pujols, and the 670th home run of his career, as he fifth on the all-time list, 26 behind Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on the all-time list.

McGee also committed a throwing error in the bottom of the ninth inning, as his throw on a Cody Bellinger dribbler that saw Lemonte Wade, Jr., unable to stay on first base.

After Bellinger reached Lux struck out, but then Pujols cut the Giants lead down to one; however, McGee was able to strike out Will Smith looking and then Austin Barnes, who tied up the game on Friday night came up with a chance to tie up the game again, but he flew out to Mike Yastrzemski in right field to preserve the Giants win.

NOTES: Caleb Baragar was placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to May 29) with left shoulder inflammation) and Nick Tropeano was recalled from Sacramento.

By scoring the 11 runs on 16 hits, it was the most runs at Dodger Stadium since September 14, 2013, when they scored 19 runs and picked up 22 hits in a 19-3 victory and it was the 10th win of the season for Tim Lincecum.

The Giants improved their record in day games to 15-6, tying the Tampa Bay Rays for the best record in the majors in day games.

UP NEXT: Johnny Cueto opens up the home stand against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Monday afternoon, who will send Dylan Bundy to the mound. Cueto is looking to improve his record to 4-1 on the season, while Bundy looks for his first win of the season, as he is 0-5.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Another Cuban Baseball Player Defects – Cuban Government Furious

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Cesar Prieto Cuban star of the Cuban Olympic team has defected in Florida while the team was there, Prieto is seen here while playing for the Cuban team during a training session at Estadio Latinamericano in Havana (AP News file photo)

Another Cuban Baseball Player Defects – Cuban Government Furious

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

Cesar Prieto star of the Cuban Olympic team defected and here is the statement by the Cuban Federation of Sports. “His decision, which is contrary to the commitment he made with both his country and team, has generated repudiation among his colleagues and other members of the delegation, who are willing to overcome foreign interests to be faithful to our homeland and the mission with which we traveled to the tournament”.

Typical statement by a communist government and it is loaded with BS. Most of his teammates are probably very happy Prieto left the team, because he is one of the most talented players on that squad and sometime that would soon be signed by a MLB scout.

It doesn’t matter what administration (party) is in charge in Washington, D.C, because Cuba just continues to violate basic human rights and their system reeks of confiscation, envy and pure hate for those that seek a basic fundamental of all human being, Freedom.

Cesar Prieto is just 21 years of age and one of the best Cuban players at this time. He said “no más” to Cuba while his team was in Florida in the qualifying round for the Tokyo Olympics, where baseball will be back as an Olympic sport. In other words, the communist government of Cuba is upset with this desertion.

The only reason Prieto deserted is because he is looking for the Liberty and the opportunity that his country doesn’t allows him. Cuban players play for the Cuban government, which is the largest employer in the country. They made the equivalent to $60 dollars a month, and have other duties “assigned” to them, like driving the team bus, these are requirements by a country that doesn’t offer its citizens the Freedom of travel, of thought or assembly.

Most of the over 25 Cuban players today in the MLB have either defected when they leave Cuba and arrive at a free country or have the dangerous task to escape in man-made dinghy across the treacherous Florida straits. It doesn’t matter which party is in the White House. Cubans have been defecting for decades and will continue until they are free to travel.

The Coast Guard is still looking for the 10 refugees that just defected from Cuba. From the Miami Herald: ” As Cuba descends into one of the worst economic crises since the beginning of the Castro revolution, its people are escaping in greater numbers on dangerous journeys to the United States and encountering disasters on the high seas.

In the latest calamity, two Cuban migrants died and 10 others were missing after their boat capsized in the Florida Straits south of Key West this week, while the U.S. Coast Guard rescued eight survivors Thursday and continued their search mission Friday.”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Halos Cobb does the job shuts out A’s 4-0 at Coliseum

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Los Angeles Angels starter Alex Cobbs delivers a pitch against the Oakland A’s in the first inning at the Oakland Coliseum Sat May 29, 2021 in game three of the four game series (AP News photo)

Los Angeles (AL) 4- 9 – 0

Oakland 0 – 3 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Sat May 29, 2021

OAKLAND– Two of the question marks about the A’s had about their rotation when they returned home from Anaheim on the 27th have been changed to exclamation points after Wednesday night’s masterly complete game shut out of the Angels by Chris Bassett and last night’s stellar 6-2/3 inning gutsy showing against them by Sean Manea. This afternoon we had a chance to see if Frankie Montás would continue this trend of improvement. He almost did.

The bullpen, however, remains unsettled. Perhaps because of the extra day´s rest Bassett´s route going performance gave them, the A’s relievers (at least the two of them who saw action last night) were sharp and effective over 2-1/3 innings.

Nonetheless, it’s a matter of concen that, while the Athletics’s relief corps converted 12 saves out of 13 opportunities and compiled an ERA of 2.32 in the team’s first 29 games in spite of the season opening six game losing streak, in the pen’s last 13 games, it has earned only two saves while blowing four.

During that time, its ERA has been a whopping 6.56 and opposing teams have ganged up on it for a BA of .285. This afternoon, the pen’s performance was excellent.

Oakland intends to activate Jesús Luzardo tomorrow. So, there does seem to be hope in the pitching department.

Ramón Laureano was missing from the starting line up for the second straight game, due to a pulled groin that has him day to day.

Although the Angel’s starter, Alex Cobb is new to the Halos this year, he has nine years of big league experience with Tampa Bay and Baltimore. The basic numbers for this season that he brought to the mound this afternoon, 2-2, 4.78, are pretty much in line with his totals for those nine previous years, 55-57, 3.88, taking into account the violentswings in ERAs that are prevalent this early in the season. He pitched brillantly today.

Slopppy play by the Oakland battery enabled the Angels to fly ahead in the top of the fifth. Rojas led off with a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch during Anthony Bemboon´s at bat. Bemboon singled to right, sending Rojas to third.

David Fletcher bunted towards first, making hard enough contact to enable Olson to charge down the line, field the ball cleanly, and flip it like a frisibee in time for Aramis García, who was waiting at home, to tag Rojas. Only he didn’t tag him.

The ball bounced off the catcher’s mitt, Rojas scored, and Bemboom reached second. The play was ruled a fielder’s choice with an error charged to García. After Justin Upton flew out to left for the second out, Ohtani, who had yet to get a hit in the series, came to the plate. Before he could do anything, Montás unleashed a wild pitch that scored Bemboon and allowed Fletcher to reach second.

Then Ohtani lined a single to left that drove in Fletcher. He proceeded to steal second on a pitchso far outside that García made a nice play merely to catch it. Rendon’s single to right drove in Ohtani with the Halos’ fourth unearned run of the frame. Things were beginning to look like a mirror image of Wednesday´s game between these two teams.

Montás was pitching a nice comeback inning in the sixth, having struck out Lagares and Rojas, when Kean Wong´s double off the right center field wall drove him out of the box. Cam Bedrosian replaced him for the next inning and a third.

Montás had thrown 98 pitches, 68 of them strikes. 10% of the remaining 30 were wild pitches. He’d gone 5-2/3 innings and allowed four runs, none of which was earned, on six hits. He walked only one batter, but that was offset by his three wild pitches. He notched seven Ks.

Deolis Guerra took over for Montás to start the eighth and stayed on for an inning and a third, leaving in the top of the ninth with a runner on first after having struck out two Angels and yielded a walk and a hit but no runs. That was because Sergio Romo stranded Fletcher, who had gotten the hit, at first, striking out Upton and getting Ohtani to foul out to third. Ohtani, by the way, went 2 for 5 for the day.

Cobb had pitched a terrific game for Los Angeles before being lifted after seven innings, replaced by southpaw Tony Watson. The veteran starter had shut the Athletics out on three hits and wo walks. He struck out eight. He did this on 101 pitches, 58 strikes. For the ninth, Raisel Iglesias took over for Watson, who had retired the A’s in order in his one inning of work, and did the same in his.

The series and the homestand will end tomrrow. The Athletics plan to pitch Cole Irvin (3-6, 3.92) against José Quintana (0-3, 7.92), both of them southpaws.