Los Angeles Angels secure crucial 4-1 win over Oakland Athletics to stay in hunt for AL West crown
The Los Angeles Angels had a lot to fight for when they went up against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, September 14 at Oakland Coliseum. The club is in pursuit of the American League West crown and they maintained their running distance with the Texas
Rangers when they managed to beat the A’s 4-1.
Jered Weaver reprised his role on the mound as a starting pitcher for the Angels in the encounter and Rich Harden was handed his 13th start for the season. Matching up an odd pair of hurlers on the mound would have indicated a favourable result
for the Angels but their run to victory was not as easy as one would have predicted.
Nevertheless, a victory was all it meant to make the challenge count. Fortunately for Weaver, he reached his career high wins tally of 17 in style. The Number 36 hurler picked up his milestone victory in seven innings of pitching. During his stint on the
mound, he conceded a run off two balls and six hits. The most impressive feat has been his earned runs average which is at 2.40. The player was content with the 4-1 victory and he had a few words to share about the game.
"We haven't gotten to our goal yet, but from a personal standpoint it's pretty cool," Weaver said. "It's not over yet. We still have a lot of goals to accomplish as a team, which is more important. Hopefully we keep winning some ballgames."
Good news was not present in the Oakland camp, as they conceded two errors 30 times when the club has been held to one run or fewer, this season. Today, there was no exception and manager Bob Melvin had a point to make on that count.
Harden, on the other hand, allowed three runs in the sixth to lose the lead and the game. He walked off with three runs from seven hits and a walk.
The A’s got in the lead in the third inning when Josh Willingham smashed his 27th homer of the season. The Angels reacted in the sixth, through Howard Kendrick, who scored on a RBI double from Bobby Abreu.
Mark Trumbo then entered the inning to lead Abreu home with a tie breaking two-run homer. The score line changed to 3-1 and the Angels capped the A’s in the top of the eighth with an Abreu run from a catching error by Oakland second baseman Eric Sogard.
The game ended on 4-1 and the Angels made sure the counter attack would not come from the A’s hitters.
Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia was content with the performance and he had a lot of words for rookie first baseman, Trumbo.
Scioscia said, "If we take him out of our line up, we're not even in a pennant race this year. When you talk about one guy's impact on a team, Mark's up there. His numbers might not be on the level of some other guys, but his value is."
Though the Angels sit three wins behind the Texas Rangers, they have a chance to cut that lead short when they face them in the last series of the season. The Angels will be looking to stay competitive for the remainder of the regular season.
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