Angels Rally Late To Win Slugfest Over Athletics, 9-7, On A Two-Run Homer By Neto

The Los Angeles Angels won a West Sacramento slugfest against the Athletics, 9-7, on a two-run bomb in the ninth inning by Zach Neto as the Halos came away even in this four-game set by winning the final two games. 

Starter Reid Detmers struggles when his command is off, and that was definitley the case today as he put the Angels down by four in the first inning. The rally featured RBI singles by Jonah Heim, Joey Meneses and Henry Bolte, with a pair of walks by Detmers playing a big role in the rally. 

The Angels struck back in the third by playing some long ball, however, with Donovan Walton doing the honors with a three-run bomb off A’s starter Jack Perkins to make it a one-run game. The A’s extended their lead to 5-3, though, via an RBI single by Nick Kurtz, and the Angels proceeded to close the gap again on a wild pitch by Perkins to make it 5-4.

But the back and forth battle was far from over at that point. The A’s stretched their lead to 7-4 in the seventh on a two-run homer by Nick Kurtz off reliever Brent Suter, with one of those runs being unearned after Zack Gelof reached before the home run on an error by Denzer Guzman.

But Guzman redeemed himself quickly and completely when he hit a three-run homer to tie the game off A’s reliever Hogan Harris to make it 7-7. 

That set up the game as a battle between bad bullpens, and the A’s bullpen “won” that battle in the ninth when Jose Siri walked and Zach Neto hit a game-winning, two-run homer. To show just how crazy Sacramento is, the exit velocity was just 94 mph, according to Angels play-by-play announcer Wayne Randazzo, which means that the home run somehow didn’t even qualify as a hard-hit ball.

The Angels still had to put the game away with their own bad bullpen, but in this occasion Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman got the job done with scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth. That got Bachman his first save of the season, and it got the Angels their second straight win against the A’s. They now get to head home to meet the Baltimore Orioles tomorrow night, and they get to play the game in a real big-league baseball stadium.