Angels walk off in Scioscia's final game at helm

ANAHEIM -- The Angels sent off Mike Scioscia with a flourish.
Taylor Ward's two-run home run off Chris Hatcher capped a three-run ninth inning that allowed the Angels to rally for a dramatic 5-4 walk-off win over the A's in Sunday afternoon's regular-season finale at Angel Stadium.
With no playoff implications on the line, the game itself carried little import, but it was memorable for Scioscia, who announced in an emotional postgame news conference that he would not return to manage the Angels in 2019 after a 19-year run in Anaheim.

"That's awesome," right fielder Kole Calhoun said. "To go out in a fashion like that, walk-off win, hopefully, he can look back on that one day and smile."
Down 4-2 entering the ninth, Shohei Ohtani sparked the uprising with a leadoff single and then scored from first on Jefry Marte's RBI double to bring the Angels within one. Ward followed by hammering a 2-0 fastball from Hatcher out to left-center field for the game-winning hit.

"It was wonderful," Ward said. "I couldn't have asked for anything better, being in my shoes in that spot. I couldn't be any happier for him. It was wonderful to play under him for the short amount of time that I was able to."
The Angels will finish their 2018 season with an 80-82 mark, matching their record from last year. The victory was the 1,650th of Scioscia's managerial career, which ranks 18th all-time.

In his final game at the helm of the Angels, Scioscia largely abdicated his duties to others, allowing first-base coach Alfredo Griffin, bench coach Josh Paul and third-base coach Dino Ebel to stand in his usual spot by the third-base railing and take turns managing the club in three-inning increments.
"To be honest, I had very little to do with today's game," Scioscia said. "I'll point to Alfredo to JP -- and Dino brought it home the last three innings. They did all the work. But it's fun. You know what's fun? To see Taylor Ward go through the growing pains and doing something. To see this team down by a couple and three hits later, we're in here with music blaring. It's just a great team win. It feels good."

For the second straight game, a series of video montages highlighting Scioscia's accomplishments with the club played in between innings, bringing a sense of finality to the afternoon's events.
The Angels took an early 2-0 lead after Marte launched a two-run home run in the first inning, but the A's tied it on Stephen Piscotty's two-run shot off Matt Shoemaker in the second.

Shoemaker allowed two runs on two hits over three innings, concluding a frustrating season for the 31-year-old right-hander, who missed more than five months with a vexing forearm injury that was misdiagnosed last year and led to two surgeries.
Limited to only seven starts in 2018, Shoemaker posted a 4.94 ERA over 31 innings for the Angels.
The game remained deadlocked until Franklin Barreto crushed a two-run home run off Odrisamer Despaigne that briefly gave the A's a 4-2 lead in the sixth.