A nice win to kick the bad vibes
Oakland stopped their losing streak at five games on Tuesday night, beating the division rival Los Angeles Angels by a final of 7-5 in the friendly confines of the Coliseum.
Right-handed rookie Mitch Spence got the ball for tonight’s game. Making just his eighth start of the season, Spence got some revenge against the Los Angeles Angels after getting knocked around by them last week. Over 5 1⁄3 innings Spence held Los Angeles to just one run on six hits and a walk, a massive improvement over his last outing when he allowed six runs against these same Angels.
On the other side of things the Oakland bats were held hitless through the first three frames against LA starter José Soriano, who has had a breakout season in his first year as a major league starter. Tonight wouldn’t be his night, though it took a few frames for the A’s bats to get going. First it was Brent Rooker getting the club on the board with a one-out solo home run to get the scoring started tonight:
soarin'
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) July 3, 2024
flyin'
pic.twitter.com/uU3vjvLnmv
That solo job was Rooker’s 16th of the season and it gave Oakland a lead they wouldn’t relinquish tonight. A few batters later Lawrence Butler came up to the plate with a couple runners on and tripled the damage in the same frame, hitting a 3-run bomb to give Oakland a 4-0 lead:
Law for three pic.twitter.com/em6b6CTrhk
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) July 3, 2024
That was Butler’s third blast of the season and his first since his return to the big leagues since his demotion. We’re all hoping to see more of the same from the stud prospect moving forward and would like to see him take over one of the outfield spots.
Staked to a 4-run lead, Spence just settled in while the offense just kept things rolling. Next up was third base rookie Brett Harris, who was only just called up to the big league team this afternoon:
Brett Harris said, "I'M BACK" pic.twitter.com/UZbgpthfZU
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 3, 2024
Those extra runs would actually come in handy tonight. After Spence was done for the night it was rookie right-hander Tyler Ferguson who took over in the top of the seventh. Things didn’t go well for the rookie as he allowed a pair of runs to give Los Angeles a bit of hope and life. Not the things we want to be giving our opponent on any given night.
Given a four-run lead, flame throwing closer Maso Miller came on for the save to close this one out. The Angels didn’t make it easy for him, scoring a pair off Miller and even bringing the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. Miller buckled down though and struck out Taylor Ward swinging to end this game and end the losing streak.
Yay! A win! The Athletics are now undefeated I. The month of July (ha) and have an excellent shot at winning the series tomorrow evening in the second game. Tonight saw Mitch Spence bounce back fantastically from a tough previous start while the bats swatted a pair of long balls that turned out to be the difference. A nice, close win over the rival Angels.
The club gets right back at it tomorrow night. Rookie right Joey Estes is set to take the ball for his 10th start of the season. He’ll be opposed by Angels rookie Davis Daniel, who will be making just his second big league start ever. Looks like a favorable matchup!
