SOM Diary - 2013 replay: Angels in Oakland

Game 1: LAA 1, OAK 3

Neither starter pitches flawlessly, but both scatter hits far enough apart to get out of the early innings mostly unscathed. A's starter Milone strikes out eight over seven innings, only giving up a solo homer to Howie Kendrick in the third. He gets visibly tired in the seventh, but manages to get out of the inning with a close 2-1 lead and the win in hand.

Angels starter Blanton starts to waver in the fifth, gives up two hits and a walk to start the inning and is taken out of the game after he allows the go ahead run to score when he misfields a dribbler to the mound and forces 1st base man Mark Trumbo off the bag to keep a really bad throw in the infield.

The bullpens keep the game close, although Angels reliever Downs gives up a solo homer to Brandon Moss to give the A's an insurance run. Ianetta, who replaced Hank Conger after he got hit on the hand by a breaking ball from Blanton, then takes down Cespedes on an attempted steal and the Angels get out of the seventh inning without further trouble, but Balfour comes in for his first save opportunity and makes the best of it with a straightforward 1-2-3 inning on eight pitches to bring home the series opener.

On the losing LA side, rightfielder Cole Kalhoun goes 2 for 4 in a second solid performance standing in for the lackluster JB Shuck in right field, but commits the second error in as many games as he misjudges a flyball and lets it get past him in the third.

Game 2: Battle of the lead-off hitters - LAA 4, OAK 16

The Angels show how to score quickly as their leadoff man Erick Aybar doubles and is brought home on two groundouts by Trout and Pujols. The A's show how to score even faster as their leadoff Crisp starts the game with a homer off Jerome Williams. A walk, a double and another homerun follow, making it 1:4 A's with only one out in the first before Williams can work his way out of the inning with two more grounders. In the second, Williams' troubles continue as Coco Crisp hits another one (just - rolled a 1 on the ballpark chart, the only result that yields a homer in Oakland for a leftie batter) over the right field wall with Norris on base (on a fielding error from shortstop and Angels leadoff Aybar), and Cespedes adds another two run homer to make it 1:8.

Starting in the third, the game for the Angels is only about living to fight another day, and preserving their bullpen. However, Williams continues to struggle and leaves after 3.2 innings with 12 runs on the board for the A's, reliever Jepsen gives up another four runs in the fifth, and it never gets better after that as the A's cruise on to a 16-4 victory.

Game 3: "A" is for aces, "B" is for brooms - LAA 0, OAK 2

Game three of the series is a complete reversal from the homerun happy, high scoring previous encounter. Both starters leave after seven innings each with very similar numbers - about half a dozen K's, no or one walk, a handful of hits. The one run given up by C. J. Wilson in the fifth turns the scales in favor of the home team, and after scoring an (unearned) insurance run off Angels reliever de la Rosa, Doolittle and closer Balfour bring the brooms to sweep the series. Oakland advances to 5-1, the Angels need to get back on track after starting the season 1-5.