ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Oakland A's manager Bob Melvin had been waiting for the A's offense to perform up to its potential. That potential was exceeded, but it still wasn't enough.
The A's came up short in a 13-9 loss to the Angels Friday night in a game that felt more like a home run derby with a total of seven homers throughout the evening.
Defensive wizard Matt Chapman had already made a couple of spectacular plays on the night to protect what was an A's lead for most of the night, but it was an error he made in the seventh inning that led to a brutal late blow.
With the Angels having already tied the game with two runs in the inning, Chapman made a short-hop throw to first base that Matt Olson was unable to dig out. Chapman was charged with the error to keep the inning alive, and after an intentional walk to Mike Trout, Blake Treinen surrendered a three-run homer to Justin Upton to give the Angels their first lead of the night at 12-9.
Upton's bomb capped off what was an overall meltdown for A's pitchers, beginning with starter Daniel Gossett.
Gossett ran into the phenomenon that has become "Ohtani Mania," in the second inning. Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani did it again, blasting a solo shot off Gossett to make it three straight games in which Ohtani has homered.
Later in the fourth inning, Gossett crumbled, allowing hits to the first four batters of the inning and three runs to score to cut the lead to 6-4. Gossett would not make it out of the inning as he was pulled for Yusmeiro Petit, and another run crossed the plate as Gossett was responsible for a four-run inning that shrunk Oakland's lead to 6-5.
It was the first real bad night for the A's new and improved bullpen this season. Petit, Liam Hendriks, Emilio Pagan, Ryan Buchter, Blake Treinen, and Santiago Casilla combined to allow eight runs in 4 2/3 innings of relief. Although only three of those runs were earned.
The fire alarm went off at the A's team hotel, and apparently an alarm was also set off in the A's bat rack.
Forced to evacuate their team hotel Friday morning because of a small chemical fire, the A's offense caught fire in a major way by blasting five home runs on Friday night.
Jed Lowrie set it off with a solo homer to right field off Parker Bridwell in the first inning. Matt Joyce and Marcus Semien then went back-to-back in the second as part of a huge five-run inning in which the A's managed to chase Bridwell out of the game.
Chapman continued his early strong year at the plate a two-run shot to center field. It was his third home run of the season, pushing the A's lead to 8-5. Chapman's batting average stands at .412 as he's in the midst of a career-best eight-game hit streak.
Chapman has also put together five straight multi-hit games, which hasn't been done by an A's player since Ryon Healy in September of 2016.
But the young A's third baseman didn't just get it done at the plate.
Clinging to an 8-7 lead in the fifth, Chapman turned a fantastic double play on a ground ball by Martin Maldonado with bases load. He back-handed the ball, stepped on third and fired a dart over to first baseman Olson to end the inning with the lead still intact.
Olson contributed on offense with a home run in the seventh to push the A's lead to 9-7.
