Matt Chapman delivers Oakland victory, hitting go-ahead home run in the 9th

Angels 2, A’s 3

It seems the Angels are not big fans of Team Chaos. Had the Angels won, three teams (Oakland, Tampa Bay, and Cleveland) would now separated by just 1.5 games for the two Wild Card spots. Should all three tie, there would be two games before the Wild Card game to determine which of the three advances to the Division Series. Instead, Oakland remains in the catbird’s seat.

Frankie Montas returned to action for the Oakland A’s after having been suspended for 80 games for PED use. In the event of Team Chaos, Montas would be allowed to pitch, because the games before the Wild Card games are not deemed part of the postseason. A little unfair, and it does somewhat defeat the purpose of a playoff ban, but those are the rules. Montas was effective over six innings of work, only allowing one run on this Taylor Ward moonshot:

Andrew Heaney took the mound for the Angels in his last start of the 2019 season. He ran into trouble in the first, second, and sixth innings and will not reach 100 innings on the year. It’s been an off-and-on season for Heaney, who will look to turn things around in 2020. Although he had his issues, the only blemish on the scorecard was this effort from Ramon Laureano:

Umpires then decided to umpire the game up by calling this a foul ball:

I mean...this is a pretty bad look for MLB.

It would’ve been Taylor Ward’s third hit of the game and given the Angels the lead. Ward would fly out, but reborn Major League player Kaleb Cowart doubled to the other side of the field.

All was well.

Then Hansel Robles decided to groove one to Matt Chapman.

Good night.