The Oakland A’s needed every bit of a five-run big inning to secure their 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
The Angels out-hit the A’s 14-8 and threatened in a handful of innings against the A’s bullpen.
The big inning saw the A’s bat around against Angels starter Dylan Bundy and reliever James Hoyt. The third inning started off with Mark Canha getting hit by a pitch and Tony Kemp doubling him home and Matt Olson hitting a sacrifice fly to score Kemp. Jed Lowrie and Matt Chapman extended the inning with a walk and a double, respectively, and Mitch Moreland scored both with an infield hit that eked under David Fletcher’s glove, playing the infield in. The rally ended with Elvis Andrus’ RBI single.
Those six runs built on a lead established in the second inning on Sean Murphy’s two-run home run, his seventh of the year.
Sean Manaea didn’t have his best stuff but went 5 2/3 innings, allowing only one run. He struck out five and walked one.
The A’s bullpen let things get dicey in the seventh inning. Off reliever Burch Smith, Jared Walsh hit a two-out, two-run double to make it 8-3 and the Angels tacked on two more with a pair of RBIs.
The A’s were hit by pitches four times, twice in the seventh inning. Sean Murphy was hit twice, once from Angels reliever Junior Guerra in the seventh inning, who hit Chad Pinder on what appeared to be the back of his skull in the next at-bat. Pinder exited the game with trainers.
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