May 8, 2017

Jed Lowrie belted a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, as the A’s defeated the Angels 3-2 on Monday night in Oakland.  It was the A’s 3rd straight walk-off win.

Lowrie connected on a 1-0 pitch, his 2nd homer of the game, drilling it 405 feet over the right center field wall.  The home run came off of Halos reliever Deolis Guerra.  Guerra (2-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings, and was shutting down the A’s until he faced Lowrie, who’s homer was the only hit Oakland generated off the Angels right-hander.

The Angels took a quick 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on a Luis Valbuena 2-run homer.  Those were the only two runs given up by Oakland starter Kendall Graveman, who pitched 7 innings.  Graveman got the no decision, but scattered 7 hits and just the 2 runs, while striking out 6 and walking 1.

Oakland got four innings of scoreless relief from Ryan Madsen, Santiago Casilla, and Liam Hendriks.  The trio gave up only 2 hits in their 4 innings of work.  Hendriks (1-0) got credit for the win.

Lowrie’s first home run of the game came in the 4th inning off of Angel starter Ricky Nolasco, which cut the Angels’ lead to 2-1.

Just one inning later, Oakland tied it on another solo home run, this time from Trevor Plouffe.  Nolasco gave up the 2 runs on 5 hits, in 7 innings of work.  He struck out 10 batters in 103 pitches.

Mike Trout sat out for the 4th time in 5 games, and the Angels offense struggled.  The Halos were 0-6 with runners in scoring position, leaving 9 men on base on the night.

The news got even worse for the Angels when shortstop Andrelton Simmons got hit by a pitch in the first and left an inning later with a bruised left hand and right thumb.  X-rays were negative and he is day to day.

The Angels and A’s will be back at it tomorrow night in Oakland.  Alex Meyer (0-1; 9.39 ERA) will take the mound for the Halos, while the A’s will counter with Jharel Cotton (3-3; 4.64 ERA).