ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Last month, Ji-Man Choi grinned when he was asked how he learned to do the splits.
He never quite learned how, he said. He only learned one day that he could, out of necessity. The 230-pound South Korean's unintentional flexibility enabled the Los Angels Angels to beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-6, on Wednesday at Angel Stadium.
Bequeathed a two-run lead in the eighth inning, Fernando Salas loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a single. J.C. Ramirez entered, promptly walked in a run, and then induced a grounder to Yunel Escobar's left. The third baseman bobbled the baseball before getting it to Cliff Pennington at second, who threw low to Choi at first base.
He stretched his legs to their limits, preventing the run that crossed the plate at the same time from counting and preserving the Angels' 6-5 lead. The Athletics tied the game in the next inning, but Mike Trout led off the bottom of the ninth by diving into first base, and Albert Pujols launched a no-doubt, two-run homer off reliever Ryan Dull deep into the left-field stands.
Two months ago, Jered Weaver threw one of the best games by a major leaguer this season against Oakland, when he needed only 95 pitches to record 27 outs. At the Oakland Coliseum, the Athletics hacked at everything he offered, popping up an array of fastballs in the low 80s and changeups somewhere in the 70s.
Five days later against the same team at a ballpark where he has had almost unprecedented success, Angel Stadium, Weaver could not finish five innings. They waited him out, took more called strikes, and battered eight hits for four runs.
Call Wednesday's six-inning, four-run outing against the Athletics a blend of the two, as Weaver enticed them into early contact and turned it into a reasonably successful performance. It was a night emblematic of the 33-year-old right-hander's season.
The first run he yielded scored on a double-play ball after back-to-back singles to begin the second. He gave up another run in the third, aided by a tapper that bounced off his glove for a hit, and then an errant throw from Escobar on a ground ball.
Escobar atoned for his mistake by aggressively taking second base on a flyout to center. When Stephen Vogt let a baseball pass him by, Escobar took third, and he scored on a Mike Trout bloop single.
That was the Angels' second run. Carlos Perez first notched a two-out infield single to score a run in the Angels' half of the second. After Oakland's Ryon Healy doubled in two in the fourth, Pennington and Jefry Marte launched solo shots. And, in the fifth, the Angels pushed across two more runs with two hits and sharp baserunning.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia insisted Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon that Cam Bedrosian would not become his definitive closer. But twice since Huston Street's knee injury, he has had save opportunities, and twice he has chosen Bedrosian.
Whereas Bedrosian blew away the Athletics the previous night, striking out the side to convert his first save chance, Oakland got to him Wednesday. He recorded only one out, and it was on the basepaths. He issued three walks and two singles, and left the bases loaded for Mike Morin, who threw two pitches.
The first was a slider, taken for a strike by Danny Valencia. The second was a changeup, tapped back to Morin and turned into an inning-ending double play. Morin pumped his arm as he walked off the mound, his first major league outing in five weeks going as well as anything could.
