Unfortunately, the A's have revealed their true colors this series: they are, actually, a team of humans. Yesterday evening, a strong pitching performance from Zach Greinke did the A's in. He threw 7 innings of 4 hit, 1 run, 4 K ball and was by far better than his outing last month here. As it happens, Jarrod Parker's outing wasn't really a whole lot worse, but it was the bullpen that put this game out of reach. For his part, Parker also threw 7, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits and 5 K's. Most importantly, to me, Parker did not walk a batter, a far cry from his last outing in Cleveland.
As far as the scoring, the Angels strung together 3 singles in 4 batters in the 5th. Mike Trout provided the run-scoring flavor, making it 1-0 Angels. A Mike Scioscia run followed in the 6th, as consecutive singles by Kendrys Morales and Howard Kendrick set up a bunt from Erick Aybar and the obligatory sacrifice fly from Albert Callaspo. 2-0 Angels. As I mentioned above, it would be the A's bullpen - surprisingly, Sean Doolittle was the culprit -- that coughed it up tonight. An Albert Pujols single (physically off of Doolittle's shin - not sure if that affected him later or not) started it, followed by a Morales K and Kendrick force out. Despite getting those 2 outs, Aybar and Callaspo did the damage with a double and a single, respectively, each scoring a run. Exit Doolittle, enter Scribner, who got Vernon Wells to pop out.
For the 9th, exit Scribner, enter Jim Miller. He walked Chris Iannetta, got Trout to pop out, and then walked Torri Hunter (!!). As Pujols flied out to Josh Reddick, again it looked like the A's might get out of it within 3 runs for another pie-powered 9th inning. Jerry Blevins came in to turn Morales around to bat RHB, but could not get out of the inning unscathed. Morales laced a double to LF off the wall, dashing any hope of an A's comeback. As a final blow, it was Jason Isringhausen who finished the game against the A's.
The A's will attempt to right the ship later today and avoid an ill-timed sweep. Baseballgirl will have you for the businessman's special at 12:35.