ANAHEIM, Calif. � Throughout this cursed season for Los Angeles Angels pitching, the one starter who had made it without a hitch from opening day was, ironically, 33-year-old veteran Jered Weaver.
Then, in the final week of the season, while Weaver was pitching one of his best games of the season, the injury bug bit its last holdout.
Weaver left after five scoreless innings because of lower back tightness, failing to stick around long enough for a decision in the Angels' 2-1 victory over the Oakland A's on Monday.
The Angels snapped a tie with a run in the eighth, scoring on Albert Pujols' bases-loaded groundout.
There was no official word on the severity of Weaver's injury, but it could threaten what might be the final start of his Angels career.
"Weave thinks he's going to be fine," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who added that the team will let the medical staff determine if Weaver can pitch Sunday.
Weaver, finishing his 11th season with the Angels, is unsigned for next season, and it's unclear if the Angels have a spot for him in 2017.
For much of his last couple years, it looked questionable that he would pitch again at all after this season, with his effectiveness decreasing along with his velocity.
This season, though, Weaver has shown a slight uptick in velocity, and he's also had several stretches of solid pitching. He had three quality starts in his five outings leading into Monday, which was his best game in months.
Weaver easily buzzed through the Oakland lineup for four innings, retiring all 12 hitters. The closest the A's came to a hit was Marcus Semien's fly ball that Mike Trout caught against the fence in the fourth.
The A's only hit against Weaver was Danny Valencia's clean single into left in the fifth.
But he left after that with the back problem, and his chance for a victory disappeared with Stephen Vogt's game-tying homer in the sixth against Deolis Guerra.
The Angels had gotten on the board first with a homer by Trout, who is polishing off the final lines of his MVP resume.
Trout, who also singled and walked twice, now has 29 homers and 98 RBI, to go along with a .318 average. He needs one more homer and three more steals to have his second 30-30 season.
His OPS now stands at 1.001. He has never finished a season with an OPS of 1.000.
