6-RUN 8TH PROPELS A’S TO CLINCH AL WEST
Oakland’s 10th ‘W’ In Last 11 Games
OAKLAND, Sept. 23 (AP) – The Oakland Athletics exploded for six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, blowing open a close game to defeat the Los Angeles Angels 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum, clinching the American League West in the process. The A’s are the fourth major league club to clinch a division title this season, following the Nationals, Orioles and Dodgers. The win was the 11th in the last 12 games for the red hot A’s. The Angels have dropped seven of ten, but have clinched the top wildcard slot in the American League. Four teams are battling for the final AL postseason berth.
Clinching the division ends a long, drawn-out process whereby the A’s held off the Angels, who have the best record in the AL since the All-Star break. But every time Los Angeles threatened Oakland’s hold on first place, the A’s rallied, and ultimately prevailed.
The Angels drew first blood, scoring twice in the top of the third off A’s starter Sonny Gray. Hank Conger drew a one-out walk from Gray and, one batter later, Kole Calhoun launched his 17th home run of the season to put Los Angeles on top 2-0. Calhoun’s home run was the first of only two hits the Angels would amass in the game.
The A’s drew even with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third off Wade LeBlanc. Derek Norris started things off with a single and advanced to third on Stephen Vogt’s base hit. Jedd Lowrie rapped out the third straight Oakland safety, singling to left scoring Norris and advancing Vogt to second. Josh Reddick was hit with a pitch, filling the bases, and Geovany Soto’s base hit to left advanced everyone 90 feet, tying the game. Eric Sogard finally ended the inning by grounding back to the box.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the sixth. Soto led off with a double and was replaced by pinch runner Billy Burns. Sogard then laced a base hit to center, scoring Burns and giving the A’s the lead, 3-2. It was also the end of the day for LeBlanc, who was replaced on the mound by Joe Smith, who got into and out of trouble in the inning with no further damage done.
The score was still 3-2 as the game moved into the bottom of the eighth when Oakland broke it open. Jason Grilli started the inning for the Angels and allowed consecutive hits to Brandon Moss, Sogard and Coco Crisp, which left the bases loaded and no outs. Grllli was replaced by Hector Santiago who promptly walked pinch hitter Alberto Callaspo, forcing in the fourth A’s run. Kevin Jepsen came on to face the right-handed Josh Donaldson and promptly walked him, forcing in another run. Adam Dunn followed with a base hit to center, scoring Crisp and Callaspo to make it 7-2, and Vogt then grounded a base hit to left, reloading the bases. Seven betters had come to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, facing three different pitchers, and none of those hitters had been retired. Lowrie then lifted a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Donaldson to make it 8-2 and Reddick followed with a single to left, scoring Dunn to cap the scoring at 9-2. Jepsen finally got the final two outs, but six runs had scored and it was all over but the shouting.
Shouting is what the Coliseum crowd of 32,189 did plenty of when Sean Doolittle retired John McDonald on a grounder to Donaldson at third, completing a perfect inning of work, leading to a celebration on the field by A’s.
9/23/2014, LAA14-Oak14, The Coliseum
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Angels 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0
2014 Athletics 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 6 x 9 16 0 12 1
Angels AB R H BI AVG Athletics AB R H BI AVG
Calhoun rf 4 1 1 2 .252 Crisp cf 5 1 3 0 .240
Trout cf 3 0 0 0 .307 Fuld lf 4 0 1 0 .259
Pujols 1b 3 0 1 0 .281 Callaspo ph 0 1 0 1 .209
Kendrick,H 2b 4 0 0 0 .295 Donaldson 3b 3 1 0 1 .257
Aybar ss 1 0 0 0 .294 Norris,De dh 2 1 1 0 .305
Jimenez,L ph 1 0 0 0 .242 Dunn,A ph 2 1 1 2 .262
Cron dh 3 0 0 0 .263 Vogt 1b 5 1 2 0 .258
McDonald ph 1 0 0 0 .208 Lowrie ss 4 0 2 2 .248
Navarro,E lf 3 0 0 0 .291 Reddick rf 4 0 1 1 .301
Conger c 1 1 0 0 .235 Soto,G c 3 0 2 1 .233
Freese ph 1 0 0 0 .236 Burns pr 0 1 0 0 .143
Iannetta c 0 0 0 0 .233 Moss 1b 2 1 1 0 .236
Beckham 3b 3 0 0 0 .221 Sogard 2b 3 1 2 1 .242
28 2 2 2 Punto ph 1 0 0 0 .237
38 9 16 9
Angels INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
LeBlanc L 2-2 5.0 9 3 3 3 2 96 58 2.08
Smith,J 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 16 12 2.36
Thatcher 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 1.95
Diaz,Ja 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 7 4 1.93
Grilli 0.0 3 3 3 0 0 7 6 3.81
Santiago,H 0.0 0 1 1 1 0 4 0 3.34
Jepsen 1.0 3 2 2 1 0 22 12 2.45
8.0 16 9 9 5 4 156 94
Athletics INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Gray W 15-10 6.0 2 2 2 5 6 99 62 2.84
Abad H 18 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 2.88
Otero H 16 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 14 10 2.87
Cook H 11 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 10 6 1.40
Doolittle 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 7 5 1.50
9.0 2 2 2 5 10 134 86
LAA: Freese batted for Conger in the 7th
Iannetta inserted at c in the 7th
Jimenez,L batted for Aybar in the 9th
McDonald batted for Cron in the 9th
Oak: Burns ran for Soto,G in the 6th
Dunn,A batted for Norris,De in the 6th
Vogt moved to c in the 7th
Moss inserted at 1b in the 7th
Callaspo batted for Fuld in the 8th
Punto batted for Sogard in the 8th
Callaspo moved to 1b in the 9th
Moss moved to lf in the 9th
Punto moved to 2b in the 9th
2B-Pujols(37), Soto,G(4). HR-Calhoun(17). RBI-Calhoun 2(54), Donaldson(95),
Lowrie 2(62), Reddick(53), Soto,G(9), Sogard(24), Dunn,A 2(78), Callaspo(35).
CS-Fuld. K-Calhoun, Trout 2, Kendrick,H 2, Cron, Navarro,E 3, Freese, Crisp,
Lowrie, Reddick, Dunn,A. BB-Trout, Pujols, Aybar 2, Conger, Donaldson 2,
Norris,De, Sogard, Callaspo. SF-Lowrie. HBP-Reddick. HB-LeBlanc.
GWRBI: Sogard
Temperature: 83, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: out to right at 17 MPH.
Attendance: 32,189
Game Time: 3:27