Left-hander Brett Anderson gave Oakland the third straight scoreless outing from its starting pitchers and Mark Canha belted a two-run home run Saturday night, lifting the A's to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels.
The win was the A's second in three games against the Angels, and mostly followed the same script as their 4-0 victory Thursday on Opening Day.
Following in the footsteps of Mike Fiers and Marco Estrada, each of whom threw six shutout innings earlier in the series, Anderson (1-0) blanked the Angels on three hits and two walks over his six innings. He struck out four.
Anderson allowed an Angel to reach scoring position in each of the first three innings before retiring 11 of the last 12 batters he faced.
One of the Angels to reach second base was Mike Trout, who doubled with one out in the third inning, L.A.'s final hit against Anderson.
Meanwhile, Stephen Piscotty had a two-run single in the third inning and Canha hit his home run in the fourth, giving Anderson a 4-0 lead.
As they did in Friday's 6-2 win, the Angels rallied against the Oakland bullpen in the eighth inning, getting within 4-2 on an error, a double by Zack Cozart, a sacrifice fly by Trout and an RBI single by Andrelton Simmons.
Closer Blake Treinen replaced J.B. Wendelken at that point and served up a single to Albert Pujols that put the potential tying runs on the bases.
But he then struck out Justin Bour and got Jonathan Lucroy to pop out, ending the threat and retaining the two-run lead.
Treinen returned to the mound to work a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the season.
Piscotty's two-run hit came in a rally that started after Angels right-hander Felix Pena (0-1) had retired the first eight A's in order.
Josh Phegley ended the perfect game with a single and took second on a single by Robbie Grossman. A walk to Matt Chapman loaded the bases for Piscotty, who came through to put Oakland on top 2-0.
Canha's homer came with two outs in the next inning, after Kendrys Morales had worked an inning-opening walk.
Pena was pulled before he could complete the fourth, having allowed four runs and four hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out three.
Angels relievers Noe Ramirez, Justin Anderson and Luis Garcia combined for 4 1/3 innings of three-hit, shutout relief to keep the visitors close.
Piscotty finished with two hits for the A's, who can get back to .500 on Sunday after opening 0-2 in Japan last week.
Pujols collected two of the Angels' six hits.
The A's out-hit the Angels 7-6.
--Field Level Media
LA Angels | Oakland | |
Felix Pena | Player | Brett Anderson |
Loss | W/L | Win |
3.2 | IP | 6.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 4 |
4 | Hits | 3 |
9.82 | ERA | 0.00 |
LA Angels | Oakland | |
Albert Pujols | Player | Stephen Piscotty |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 2 |
.500 | Avg | .500 |