Athletics defense defects, joins Angels offense in high-scoring Halos win

Angels 13, A’s 9

You never got the sense that the Angels were out of the game. So, Fangraphs said that, at one point, we had just a 6.1% chance of winning this game. Judging by the way we’d played the A’s and the amount of optimism in the Halo dugout coming out of the off-day, 6.1 was probably the percentage chance that we’d lose the game. Sure, Parker Bridwell had had a tough game, sure, the A’s were up 6-0...

We had Shohei Ohtani on our side.

For those counting at home, that’s three straight games with a homer, and he shows no signs of slowing down. The homer was 112 mph off the bat, on a fastball away. So if you can’t pitch Sho inside, and you can’t pitch Sho outside, where do you pitch him?

This isn’t something you read about on a screen. You have to feel the emotions, to hear the energy inside the stadium. All that history you read, the legends of baseball...here’s one right here. We are traveling through an ocarina of time to be able to watch this guy pitch and hit, and children will one day hear stories of these exact games. He’s four games into his major league career, and he’s getting pitched around, and it’s a genuine disappointment when he makes an out.

Ohtani later scorched a ball to first in the 7th inning at 110 mph, probably meaning he will overtake Jason Heyward on this impressive list:

Bridwell continued his struggles against the A’s, with the worst three starts of his otherwise stellar major league career coming against Oakland. We’ll see if he gets another chance to turn it around next week.

Meanwhile, the Angels started to pick Bridwell up. In the 4th, Albert Pujols managed to sneak an incredibly slow ground ball through the left side of the infield, and then Kole Calhoun fought a pitch the other way. Andrelton Simmons doubled in Pujols, and Luis Valbuena scorched a ball right at Marcus Semien, who booted it. It was scored a base hit.

Déjà vu struck in the 5th, as Justin Upton singled, then Albert Pujols grounded a ball to the left side of the infield for a GIDP through the left side of the infield. Trust the A’s to allow Albert to sneak two balls through. Simmons singled in a run, and Luis Valbuena scorched a ball right at Yusmeiro Petit, who booted it. It was scored a base hit.

Ohtani walked with the bases loaded, because this guy is clearly better than Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds.

In the 7th, with Simmons and Jefry Marte on base and no outs, Ohtani scorched the aforementioned grounder to first, and Martin Maldonado was robbed of extra bases by Matt Chapman. Seems uncharacteristic of the Oakland defense. No fear, as the very next batter, Zack Cozart, grounded one to Chapman, who somehow couldn’t properly throw it over the first, allowing Simmons and Marte to score. That one was scored an error.

The A’s were afraid of Mike Trout, which is a very fair assessment of Mike Trout’s baseball skills, so they walked him and allowed Justin Upton to put their chances of winning the game to bed. Upton crushed a baseball right above THE LINE. 12-9, Angels. Thank you, Oakland!

Shoutout to Noe Ramirez, Blake Wood, Jose Alvarez, Jim Johnson, and Keynan Middleton for providing solid relief. Cam Bedrosian gave up 2 runs, but that kind of thing is expected now.

Just to juxtapose the entire game, the A’s made their 27th out when Jed Lowrie singled off the right field wall. He wandered too far from first, and before he knew it, the ball was zipped from Calhoun to Simmons to Pujols. That’s #angelsdefense

None of that #athleticsdefense