By ERIC HE The Associated Press
OAKLAND — Deploying infielder Luis Guillorme as a relief pitcher was not the way the Angels wanted to return from the All-Star break.
Max Schuemann hit a three-run homer, JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers both added two-run shots, and the Oakland Athletics hammered the Angels, 13-3, on Friday night in the first game back from the break for both teams.
Angels starting pitcher Griffin Canning (3-10) allowed six runs in 3⅓ innings before leaving with what was described as elbow irritation he felt when throwing his slider. Canning did not sound overly concerned about it after the game.
Schuemann, who went 3 for 4 and entered the game batting .351 in July, gave the A’s a 6-2 lead in the fourth with his homer. He added an RBI double in the sixth. Oakland scored seven times in the sixth, with Bleday and Langeliers both hitting homers.
The A’s, who scored 18 runs the game before the All-Star break, have recorded double-digit runs in their last two games.
Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel hit solo homers for the Angels, who couldn’t muster anything else against A’s starter JP Sears (7-7), who allowed just those two runs while pitching into the sixth. Neto added two singles and scored twice for the Angels, who went into the break on a three-game winning streak. Kevin Pillar and Schanuel both had two hits.
Guillorme pitched a scoreless eighth for the Angels, allowing a hit and a walk, to help preserve the Angels’ bullpen as they lost for the seventh consecutive time in Oakland.
“My goal for the second half is to figure out how to sustain, and get more consistent,” Angels manager Ron Washington said before the game. “We just got to get more consistent. And if we can do that, the second half is going to be a beautiful time.”
Oakland lost top prospect Jacob Wilson (Thousand Oaks High) to a left hamstring strain in his major league debut. Wilson, Oakland’s first-round draft pick in 2023 and a top prospect according to MLB.com, left the game after straining his hamstring while scoring on Lawrence Butler’s two-run triple in the third. Wilson, who had just singled in his first career at-bat, was visibly frustrated in the dugout between innings, stretching out his hamstring before leaving the game with a trainer.
Wilson, the 22-year-old son of former major league shortstop Jack Wilson, also missed more than a month with a knee injury at Triple-A Las Vegas earlier this season. A shortstop, he was hitting above .400 in the minors.
“It was pretty horrible,” Wilson said of leaving the game. “This is a day that you’ve been working for your entire life and I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time now. I had three innings there where I can say it was the high moment of my life right there.”
Wilson added that it was “better safe than sorry” for him to come out early. He said getting his first hit was “definitely a moment that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”
A’s manager Mark Kotsay hopes that Wilson just has a minor strain, but he took him out of the game once he saw Wilson take the field in the fourth.
“There’s no reason for us to push that kid when when there’s a lower half injury that can get any worse by having to make a play for us or by not being able to make a play – and hurting the team,” Kotsay said. “From that standpoint, I admire the kid’s passion and desire to be on the field but at that point, it’s my job to make that decision.”
The A’s, who took two of three from the major league-best Philadelphia Phillies on the road prior to the All-Star break, also won their fourth straight game over the Angels in front of an announced crowd of 11,596 at the Coliseum.
Angels: OF Mike Trout (knee) will face live hitters in Arizona before starting a rehab assignment at Triple-A Salt Lake City. … Third baseman Luis Rengifo (wrist) took ground balls and hit off a tee on Friday.
Angels (RHP Jack Kochanowicz, 0-1, 12.00 ERA) at A’s (RHP Mitch Spence, 5-6, 4.75 ERA), Saturday, 1 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM
