OAKLAND, Calif. — Angels reliever Tony Watson spent three innings getting loose on Saturday, throwing pitch after pitch in the right-field bullpen at RingCentral Coliseum.
He had to wait his turn. Starter Alex Cobb was pitching too well to come out of the game.
In the Angels’ 4-0 win over the Oakland Athletics, Cobb dazzled across seven scoreless innings. He struck out eight batters and walked only two. He gave up just three singles and no extra-base hits. His infield turned three double-plays. His outfield didn’t have to make a single catch while he was on the mound.
It was a vintage performance from the 33-year-old right-hander, using soft contact and ground balls to silence the A’s (31-23), who entered the day top 10 in the majors in slugging percentage.
Cobb didn’t throw a ton of strikes (only 58 out of his 101 pitches) or get many whiffs (only 12 on 42 swings). But, he mixed his sinker, splitter and curveball to near-perfection, putting batters away when he was ahead in the count and inducing weakly hit balls on the ground when he wasn’t.
By the time Cobb finally did exit, making way for Watson to pitch the eighth and closer Raisel Iglesias to pitch the ninth — combining for the team’s first shutout of the season — the Angels (23-29) had already built their four-run lead.
All four of the runs were unearned, scored in a fifth inning during which A’s starter Frankie Montas threw two wild pitches and catcher Aramis Garcia committed a crucial error at the plate.
With runners at the corners and one out in the inning, David Fletcher dropped a bunt that A’s first baseman Matt Olson quickly fielded. Olson threw to the plate in plenty of time for Garcia to make the tag on baserunner Jose Rojas. But Garcia missed the catch, allowing Rojas to score and a big inning to ensue.
Two at-bats later, Shohei Ohtani sliced a two-run single into left, one of two singles on the day. Ohtani then stole second and scored on an RBI single by Anthony Rendon — who also had two hits, including a double after previously slumping through the past two weeks.
Before the fifth inning, the Angels had scored only one run in their previous 25 innings. And with the way Cobb was dealing, it would prove to be plenty.
Cobb was sharp from the start, striking out his first two batters and retiring six of his first seven. He issued a leadoff walk in the third, but then rolled Garcia into a double play to third. After the first two batters in the fifth inning reached base, Cobb got another tailor-made double-play ball to short to escape the jam.
There was another double play in the fourth, though not of the routine variety. After Tony Kemp hit a leadoff single, Olson skied a high popup into foul territory near third base. Rendon, the third baseman, was shifted up the middle on the play, but sprinted 113 feet to make the catch.
Kemp tagged up at first and easily reached second as Rendon one-hopped an off-balanced throw toward the bag. Then, Kemp tried to keep going, getting up and initially taking a few strides toward third. He quickly changed his mind, however, slamming on the breaks upon seeing third base was covered. By the time he turned around, it was too late, shortstop David Fletcher tagging him out to erase the threat.
Watson began warming up in the sixth, with a string of left-handers due up against Cobb. It didn’t matter. Cobb retired his final six with ease to become the first Angels starter to throw seven scoreless innings this year and lower his own season ERA to 3.78.
