A sweep was within reach, but the Los Angeles Angels put together a seventh inning rally to hand the Oakland A’s 6-5 loss on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.
Reliever Sergio Romo couldn’t maintain the A’s two-run lead, allowing four straight batters to reach, including an RBI single from Jose Rojas. With the bases loaded and one out, Angels manager tapped MVP frontrunner Shohei Ohtani Romo was pulled for left-hander Reymin Guduan.
Ohtani tied the game with a thunderous sacrifice fly, off his bat at 111 mph. Jared Walsh gave the Angels their first lead with an RBI single.
Against a wild Tony Watson, the A’s managed to tie the game back up on a pair of walks to Matt Olson and Stephen Piscotty and Sean Murphy’s RBI, a ground ball back to Watson that he threw away.
The Angels answered back against reliever Deolis Guerra, who issued a leadoff walk to Taylor Ward, who advanced to second on Kurt Suzuki’s sacrifice bunt. David Fletcher’s single put runners on the corners and Justin Upton’s sacrifice fly secured the Angels’ win.
The A’s hit nine home runs in this three game series, two came in the second inning of Sunday’s game.
Off Angels starter Dylan Bundy — who gave the A’s fits in 2020 — Matt Olson hit his 12th home run of the year 445 feet into the right field seats in the second inning. The solo home run came off Olson’s bat with a 112 mph exit velocity. After Matt Chapman’s walk, Seth Brown hit his eighth home run of the year to give the A’s a 3-0 lead.
Tony Kemp — batting leadoff for Mark Canha as he recovers from a swollen elbow caused by a hit-by-pitch — went 2-for-3 with his first triple of the season. Jed Lowrie’s 26th RBI of the year scored him and the A’s fourth run in the third inning.
Sean Manaea dealt five innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with six strikeouts.
