Final Score in Anaheim:
Oakland Athletics 2, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 0
Baby-faced rookie Trevor Cahill two-hit the Halos' lineup through seven agonizing innings, yielding just a broken-bat single to Vlad Guerrero and an ineffectual double off the wall to Jeff Mathis.
The offense squandered a perfectly serviceable start from Ervin Santana, who began the game in dominant '08 form by flashing an unhittable 94-96 mph fastball. Then, with two outs in the first, he clocked A's catcher Kurt Suzuki in the ribs with said fastball, lost a little mojo,and managed to hit 94 only a few more times the rest of the evening. A solo homerun and a triple - arguably a flyball misplayed by Juan Rivera - did him in.
Things went better in the field. Torii Hunter robbed Rajai Davis of extra bases with a flying stab at the wall in the first. Kendry Morales vacuumed up a pair of wicked short hops to save a couple of errors. In the eighth, Maicer Izturis went full extension to spear a grounder up the middle and flipped the ball from his belly to a waiting Erick Aybar, who then rifled the ball across the diamond in time to record the out. Just your average 6-4-3 putout.
The Angels drop a game in the standings to Texas, who muscled past the Yanks today on 2 Ian Kinsler homeruns and now trail the Halos by a mere four games. This is going to be a dogfight.