Ian Kinsler homered and drew a bases-loaded walk, Mike Trout had three hits and a sacrifice fly, and the injury-plagued Angels beat the Oakland Athletics 8-4 on Friday night to snap a four-game skid.
Tyler Skaggs (6-4) struck out eight over seven strong innings, allowing no earned runs and seven hits with one walk. He improved to 3-0 with a 0.45 ERA in June.
”Tyler was right on the money tonight. He had all his pitches working,” manager Mike Scioscia said.
The Angels placed four more players on the disabled list Friday, bringing their total to a franchise-record 15 on the DL at one time and leaving just 12 members of the opening day roster. The A’s in 2016 were the last club to have 15 players simultaneously on the DL.
It was a nice boost for Skaggs to get a big lead early and see his teammates come out strong despite all the injuries.
”It’s a testament to (GM) Billy Eppler. You look at our farm system a few years ago, we’d have never be able to do this,” Skaggs said. ”We’re still growing and a lot of guys stepped up tonight.”
Jose Briceno and Jose Miguel Fernandez had RBI singles in the third as Los Angeles bounced back with a big offensive night after having lost four straight following a six-game winning streak. The Angels avoided matching their longest losing streak of the season.
Skaggs didn’t allow a run until consecutive RBI doubles by Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien in the fifth.
But Oakland again didn’t score for starter Chris Bassitt (0-2), who was done after four innings after he allowed six runs – only two earned on a sloppy night of fielding for the home team – on seven hits.
Bassitt hurt his cause when he fielded Albert Pujols‘ first-inning grounder and threw high over first baseman Matt Olson’s head, allowing two runs to score.
”The early part of the game was about as bad as we’ve played,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.
Oakland dropped its fourth straight game on the heels of a sweep by World Series champion Houston the previous three days.
Bassitt was brought back up from Triple-A Nashville for his fourth big league stint of 2018, this time to fill Trevor Cahill’s spot in the rotation.
The right-hander is 0-8 over his last 12 starts dating to Aug. 21, 2015.
He received no runs of support for a second straight outing – the seventh time in 25 career starts the A’s failed to score for him – and he has received two or fewer runs of support in 21 of his 25 starts.
Angels reliever Justin Anderson received a mound visit from Scioscia and a trainer after loading the bases with two outs in the ninth, and Scioscia said afterward one of the pitcher’s fingernails had cracked. Anderson then allowed a run on a wild pitch.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: Going on the DL Friday for the Angels were INF Zack Cozart (partially dislocated left shoulder), RHP Jim Johnson (lower back strain), RHP Garrett Richards (strained left hamstring) and RHP Nick Tropeano (inflammation in his pitching shoulder). The Angels called up four righty pitchers from Triple-A Salt Lake: Eduardo Paredes, Akeel Morris, Felix Pena and Jake Jewell. … SS Andrelton Simmons (sprained right ankle) ran the bases for a second straight day and is making progress, Scioscia said. Simmons was taking batting practice as well.
Athletics: 3B Matt Chapman is set to be placed on the DL on Saturday with a bruised right hand that also bothered him in spring. He may see a specialist. An MRI showed no structural damage, Melvin said. Chapman’s consecutive games streak ended at 149 games dating to last season. He and Olson were only players to appear in first 69 games, while Olson played in his 70th straight this season Friday.
UP NEXT
Angels: LHP John Lamb will be called up from Triple-A to start Saturday, meaning the Angels must make another move by designating someone for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.
Athletics: LHP Sean Manaea (5-6, 3.49) pitches for the A’s, having gone 1-4 with a 5.93 ERA over his last eight starts.
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At age 36, James Shields is not in the picture of the future for the rebuilding Chicago White Sox.
Still, he remains a big part of the present.
Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia homered and Shields limited Minnesota to four hits over seven innings, leading the White Sox to a 6-1 victory over the Twins on Wednesday night.
Shields (3-9) struck out five and walked just two in his only scoreless start of the season. The veteran right-hander lasted just 4 2/3 innings in a loss to Oakland on Friday. Before that, he had worked at least six innings in 11 straight turns and has gone at least seven innings five times. After struggling through the last two years following his arrival in a trade with San Diego, Shields has begun to settle in.
”He’s a guy that kind of balances out our rotation,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. ”He shows these guys how to grind through an inning Authentic Troy Apke Jersey , get through certain situations, remain calm, understand that no matter how much havoc occurs around you, the best thing is to try to execute pitches.”
Tim Anderson and Charlie Tilson each had two hits and an RBI for Chicago, which has won three straight games and four of five.
”The pitching and the defense were really good,” Shields said, ”and the hitting was phenomenal.”
Ehire Adrianza had four hits and an RBI for Minnesota, which has dropped two straight games and five of six. Twins starter Kyle Gibson (2-6) allowed five runs on 11 hits in seven innings.
The White Sox took a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Abreu and Garcia led off with singles. One out later, Leury Garcia doubled to drive in Abreu. Anderson followed with a run-scoring single, and Omar Narvaez drove in a run with a ground out. Abreu’s solo homer in the fifth stretched the lead to 4-0.
Avisail Garcia’s solo homer in the eighth made it 6-0. The Twins tacked on a run in the ninth, but they fell to 34-42 to match their season high of eight games below the .500 mark after another night of chasing too many pitches out of the strike zone.
”Lefties had a hard time laying off the slider, especially down and in,” manager Paul Molitor said. ”We really didn’t hit too many balls hard.”
BALK TALK
With two outs in the sixth, Eddie Rosario walked and Brian Dozier singled to put runners on first and third and give Minnesota a chance to close the gap. But then the game took a bizarre turn. With Max Kepler stepping to the plate, Twins third base coach Gene Glynn suddenly was ejected by third base umpire Gerry Davis.
”He had wanted a balk the inning before,” Davis said to a pool reporter. ”I explained to him it was not a balk, told him I wasn’t sure he knew the definition of what a balk was for a stop. The next half inning he came out, brought it up again … and I ejected him.”
BALK TALK II
Later in the at-bat, Shields faked a pickoff throw to first and then spun around to throw to third baseman Yolmer Sanchez. Shields was called for a balk, which allowed Rosario to score and Dozier to move up to second.
Renteria argued, claiming Shields stepped off before faking to first, which is within the rules. After huddling, the umpires overturned the balk, sending the runners back. Molitor came out to protest and was quickly ejected.
”It was suspicious in the fact that we couldn’t tell if he disengaged with the rubber at all,” Molitor said. ”There’s a lot of things about the move that are suspect to me.”
Shields then struck out Kepler looking on a 71-mph curveball to end the inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins CF Byron Buxton (broken left big toe) is scheduled to play both games of a doubleheader with Triple-A Rochester on Thursday. He’ll DH one game and play the field in the other.
UP NEXT
RHP Jake Odorizzi (3-5, 4.97 ERA) pitches the final game of the three-game series for the Twins, looking to bounce back a rough outing. He gave up for six runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings against Texas on Saturday.
RHP Lucas Giolito (5-7, 7.01 ERA) takes the mound for the White Sox, aiming to win a second straight start.
