The A’s and Angels returned to action tonight in Anaheim on a clear and cool evening that saw a strong performance from A’s starter Frankie Montas, hitting all around the lineup for the visitors and a tale of two shaky innings from the Angels staff with no run support from Mike Trout and the offense.
Frankie Montas threw a redemption game tonight after one of his less impressive starts on May 28th against these same Angels in Oakland when he gave up four earned runs on four hits and walked five batters en route to a 6-4 loss at home. Tonight however was a completely different story with Montas returning to form with a respectable 6 innings in which he gave up only two runs on two hits including a homerun from Shohei Ohtani. Interestingly enough this was the first homerun that Montas had given up in over 53 innings of work.
The most significant offensive contribution of the game came from Athletics’ center fielder Ramón Laureano, who came away with two hits, including a homerun, two RBIs, a walk and a stolen base in five plate appearances. With his two hits tonight, Laureano extended a league-best hitting streak to 17 games and increased his batting average seven points to .264.
Shohei Ohtani provided all of the offense for the Angels in a rather uneventful evening for them. He racked up two hits, a walk and two RBIs in four plate appearances. During his third plate appearance he was able to connect with a fastball that ran in on the hands at 96mph and push it the other way over the fence in deep left center field.
With the completion of the first game of this series, the A’s broke a five-game losing streak and regained the .500 mark as a club (30-30). The Angles meanwhile have now lost two straight and look to get things back on track in game two of three and regain their lead in the standings over Oakland.
Thomas Gaudio Baseball Journalism 