Rooker continues unbelievable July with strong showing vs. Angels

ANAHEIM -- If there are two main takeaways for Brent Rooker from this series, it’s that A’s designated hitter has a real shot at winning AL Player of the Month for July and loves playing against the Angels.

Rooker continued his remarkable success against the Halos amidst an incredible month with two hits and three RBIs in an 8-6 A’s loss on Sunday at Angel Stadium.

Rooker’s July has been, quite frankly, unbelievable. With Sunday’s effort, Rooker is running a 1.329 OPS in July, the highest mark among qualified hitters, has driven in the most runs (28), is tied for the lead with 10 home runs and his 33 hits are second only to Bobby Witt Jr.’s 37.

Entering Sunday’s game, Rooker’s 1.9 WAR (FanGraphs version) trailed only Witt (2.1) and teammate Lawrence Butler (2.1). With two A’s hitters in serious contention to win Player of the Month, there’s a shot that Oakland has a player take home the award for the first time since Josh Donaldson in September 2013.

Then there’s the unprecedented success that Rooker has had against the Angels in his career, specifically this season. With Sunday being the A’s final game against the Angels this season, Rooker finished the year with a whopping .429/.491/.857 line against Los Angeles in 13 games.

“With those types of numbers, I think you realize you’re having some success off a team,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said on Saturday. “It does give you more confidence when you play those teams, and it’s nice to see Rooker continue to have that kind of success against the Angels.”

Rooker’s 1.348 OPS is the second-best by an A’s hitter in any single season versus the Angels (minimum 40 plate appearances), trailing only Jose Canseco’s 1.361 OPS in 1990. Rooker’s career 1.154 OPS against the Angels, meanwhile, trails only Todd Zeile’s 1.356 mark (minimum 100 plate appearances).

Rooker’s success against the Angels is just one part of the equation in what’s been a career-best year for the 29-year-old. After Sunday’s game, Rooker boasts the fourth-best wRC+ (169) in the Majors and the fifth-best slugging percentage (.587). Many thought Rooker was one of the biggest snubs not to be selected for the All-Star Game. His recent run has only furthered that notion.

Unfortunately for the A’s, they couldn’t hold onto their six-run lead after scoring six in the third inning. Immediately after Oakland’s offensive outburst, the Angels started to crawl back into the game.

After scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning, the Angels loaded the bases in the fourth down 6-3. With two outs and two strikes to the Angels’ Taylor Ward, A’s starter Osvaldo Bido hung a slider that was crushed over the left-field wall for a go-ahead -- and ultimately game-winning -- grand slam.

“We came out and swung the bats really well in the third," Kotsay said. "It was a long inning. Our starter sat for a while. We were one strike away -- we hung a slider to Ward -- and that changed the outcome of the game.”

Bido, who was making his third start of the year for the A’s, had been dancing around trouble for most of the third and fourth innings. With the righty-righty matchup between Bido and Ward, Kotsay was looking for just one more out with left-hander T.J. McFarland warming in the bullpen. When Ward lifted the pitch over the wall and gave the Angels the lead, momentum shifted.

“I was in the dugout for a long time after the [six-run] third inning. Maybe I got a little cold, but that’s no excuse,” Bido said through interpreter Ramon Hernandez. “I just came out a little wild and couldn’t make the pitches [like the first two innings]."

That’s baseball sometimes. Had Bido landed his slider in a better spot and struck Ward out like he did in the first two plate appearances, maybe the A’s would have won the game and secured a series sweep.

“Even with two outs and Ward up, Bido had punched him out twice,” Kotsay said. “If he executes a better pitch, the trajectory of the game is different from the fifth inning on. It’s one hit that ends up giving them the lead."