LA Angels Outlast A’s With Offensive Explosion

The LA Angels have struggled to bring runs across the plate in weeks past. However, the offense carried the team to a win over Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.

The LA Angels sent Matt Shoemaker to the mound Wednesday night. At first, it appeared that it would be a rough start after the first inning. He gave up two runs in the first inning, and had 31 pitches going into the second. However, Shoemaker was able to regroup and rebound, finishing five innings on 100 pitches with two earned runs and six strikeouts.

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The offense definitely had Shoemaker’s back tonight. In the bottom of the second, Danny Espinosa drove in Andrelton Simmons on a double. Cameron Maybin brought in Espinosa before scoring himself. Maybin would be one of four Angels hitters to finish with multi-hit games. He ultimately finished with three hits to go along with three RBI’s, both of which are season highs.

The Angels tacked on a run in the fifth when Albert Pujols (2-5 with an RBI) drove in Mike Trout on a single. This put Albert in a tie with Dave Winfield for the 17th spot on the all-time RBI leaderboard. The Machine is only seven RBI’s away from moving into the 14th spot. He would pass Rafael Palmiero, Ken Griffey, and Ted Williams in the process.

The Angels eventually iced the game in the seventh inning. They piled on four more runs, two courtesy of a Maybin single. In an 8-3 game, however, former Halo Matt Joyce hit an absolute shot off of Deolis Guerra to make it 8-5. The comeback was shut down quickly however, as Guerra struck out the next two batters. Bud Norris filled in for the injured Cam Bedrosian and closed the game in the ninth inning.

The Angels have won the first two games of this three game series. This is the first series they will not lose since their sweep of the Seattle Mariners in the first week of the season. The Angels will go for the sweep on Thursday night. They will send out Ricky Nolasco, who’s last start was skipped so he could work out some “mechanic issues”. Nolasco has given up seven big flies in his first five starts. The Angels will once again face Kendall Graveman, who defeated the Angels on Opening Day and owns a 2.00 ERA on the season.

Next: Angels decimated bullpen gets some help.

Runs will definitely be harder to come across tomorrow against the A’s ace in Graveman. However, the Angels have momentum in this series and should be able to pull out the win barring a complete meltdown from Nolasco.