Punchless Angels fall to Athletics
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By Bill Plunkett
The Orange County Register
(MCT)
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Well, that looked oddly familiar.
In a quick flashback like TV shows use to catch viewers up, the Angels touched on all the relevant themes from the first five months of the season. They broke out of their September slump with three nights' worth of runs, needed every bit of it as their starting pitcher struggled to get through five innings — and then watched their bullpen lose the game, 15-10, to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.
With the Texas Rangers winning, the Angels' lead in the AL West shrank to five games with eight to play. Their magic number remained at four, guaranteeing the division will still be up for grabs when the Rangers arrive for a four-game series beginning Monday.
Saturday's loss was the Angels' fourth in a row, their first four-game losing streak of the season (they are the last major-league team to suffer a four-game losing streak this year) and prompted another flashback. Angels manager Mike Scioscia kept the clubhouse doors closed to "bounce a couple things" off his team his euphemism for a stern lecture the way he did when the team sank to .500 with a loss in Tampa on June 11.
"What we have to fight is the frustration level," Scioscia said. "These guys know what's at stake.
They're going at this pretty hard maybe a little too hard. We know where we are.
"If you look back at this stretch, we haven't done things as well as we're capable of. Maybe some guys are trying to do too much."
It did not start well Saturday, with John Lackey giving up a two-run home run to Kurt Suzuki in the first inning. It didn't end well either despite a six-run fourth inning by the Angels_the first time this month they had batted around in an inning (something they seemed to be doing once a night back in July and August).
After that six-run fourth gave the Angels a 9-2 lead, they went to work letting it get away.
Lackey gave up four runs in the fifth (including a three-run home run by Jack Cust) then took a seat, his shortest start since a 42/3-inning clunker against the Rangers on July 7.
Five relievers followed him and were even worse, allowing nine runs over the next three innings. Gary Matthews Jr. briefly got the Angels' heads above water with a pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh inning. But that one-run lead wasn't safe in Kevin Jepsen's hands. He retired just two of the six batters he faced as the A's put up a six-run inning of their own in the eighth.
"They're playing good baseball, man," Lackey said of the A's who have won 11 of their past 13 games.
"Sometimes a team with nothing to lose is a little more dangerous.
"We've still gotta play better baseball. The pitching was pretty good the past couple nights. The offense did great today and I stunk. We just have to put it together on the same day."
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(c) 2009, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
