Hector Santiago was on the hill for the Halos today, our last defense against the sweep-hungry Athletics, and it went about as well as the previous starts we've seen from this team. In other words, it was a regression from his recent, two-start resurgence. In 6.0 IP, Santiago would give up 7 H but also 6 ER. Actually, this start kind of harked back to some similar outings he had weeks ago: mostly solid performance but killed by a couple homers.
The fourth was what undid Hector, as he gave up a grand salami to our old buddy Coco Crisp, and then in the same side, he gave up a solo shot to Marcus Semien. Along with a run scored off a grounder earlier in the game, the A's took a 6-2 lead at that point, and things looked grim.
The Angels had already gotten on the board via C.J Cron single and Johnny Giavotella sac fly in the first, and after that, it wouldn't be til the 7th inning that the Angels make a peep on the offensive side of things. So the 6-2 game, heading into that 7th inning, would be a 6-4 game, thanks to a bomb from Mike Trout to the centerfield hinterlands. They were holding the A's, and they were now scoring again. Was a little rally action cooking?
Indeed it was. In the 8th, the Angels evened things up as they dialed up some crucial hits on Oakland reliever John Axford, and eventually tied up the game. It was RBI singles from Jefry Marte and Andrelton Simmons that did the trick, and now, heading into the ninth, we were knotted up at 6 apiece.
Huston Street made easy work of of the Athletics in the top of the ninth, and then we were into do or die time. The first two batters of the ninth got on base, and the very limited, mostly-cleared out crowd at the Big A began to get loud and slowly rise to their feet. Trout was on first from a single and Albert Pujols followed with a single; one fast guy at second and a super slow dude at first. That's some range.
A Johnny Giavotella walk loaded up the bases, and then Jefry Marte wasn't tar-tay to the par-tay as he hit a sac fly to right, scoring Trout from third. We had ourselves a walk-off victory, stopping an extremely sucky losing streak and give the team a tiny does of happiness and dignity.
It wasn't exactly pretty, and there are still some usual Angels problems present, but it was a win. I will take it and be quiet and grateful. Celebrate...these guys actually won a baseball game!!!!!!