OAKLAND, Calif. _ Jharel Cotton's Major League debut wasn't perfection, but it wasn't far from it.
Cotton, who came within one out of a perfect game in his second start for Triple-A Nashville after the A's traded for him, retired the first nine men he faced and allowed two hits in 61/3 innings as Oakland notched a 4-1 win.
Just the fourth pitcher ever to make it to the Major Leagues from the Virgin Islands, Cotton routinely hit 94 and 95 mph when showing the Angels his fastball, then came back with devastating effectiveness when turning to his changeup, clocking 78 and 79 mph.
His lone transgression came to open the seventh inning when C.J. Cron hit a shot to the left of dead center. Center fielder Brett Eibner came close to making the catch, but it eluded his glove to cut into what had been a 3-0 Oakland lead.
Angels' leadoff hitter Andrelton Simmons singled to left to open the fourth inning and stole second, but he advanced no further. Nick Buss walked with two out in the fifth and Rafael Ortega opened the sixth with a walk. Neither man advanced beyond that, Ortega being wiped out when Simmons grounded into a double play started by third baseman Ryon Healy.
Ryan Dull took over with one out and no one on base in the seventh, then Liam Hendriks pitched the eighth before Ryan Madson closed it out with his seventh consecutive save and his 29th of the season, three short of his career high.
Meanwhile, the A's offense showed some signs of life after a week in which they'd been no-hit for at least five innings three times. True, Oakland didn't get its first hit until Yonder Alonso led off the fourth with a double off starter Alex Meyer, but the hitters loosened up after that.
Max Muncy singled home the first run off reliever Jose Alvarez and Brett Eibner added a run-scoring double later in the inning.
Marcus Semien opened the fifth with a single before a couple of walks from reliever Jhoulys Chacin loaded the bases. Alonso hit a single to score another run for 3-0 lead, but with a chance to break the game open with still no one out, the A's didn't get the ball out of the infield for the rest of the inning.
Healy smashed a homer to left field in the seventh inning. It was the rookie's seventh home run since being called up at the All-Star break and set the A's up to get to the 60-win mark at 60-79.
