A's magic number stays at 7 with loss to Halos

A's magic number stays at 7 with loss to Halos

September 19th, 2018

OAKLAND -- The A's magic number didn't budge on Tuesday.
A disastrous meeting with the Angels doomed the A's in the series opener at the Coliseum, and they didn't get much help, either. Following wins by the Yankees, Astros and Rays, the A's shook up the standings only slightly with a 9-7 loss, their fourth in the last five games.
Undone by an eventful six-run inning from the Angels, the A's fell five games behind the Astros in the American League West and 2 1/2 behind the Yankees for the top AL Wild Card berth. Their hold on the second Wild Card spot shrunk to 5 1/2 games over the Rays. Oakland's magic number remains seven with 11 to play.

The A's erased a -induced deficit with a four-run fourth.  enlivened the home crowd with a two-out, three-run double, and he then scored on a single for a 4-1 lead. However, the Halos came back with a controversial sixth-inning rally.
Flamethrower entered with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth.  launched a fly ball that right fielder attempted to chase down in foul territory, instead cut off by a fan that got a glove on it.
The A's challenged fan interference, but the original foul ruling was upheld, setting in motion a momentum shift and a string of unfortunate events for Oakland. Simmons sliced a two-run single to center, then Trivino hit with a pitch and gave up a grand slam to that put the Angels ahead, 7-4.

"I don't know how you don't [call fan interference]," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "He's going to catch it. I'm not sure what they saw that we didn't see. I asked Stephen, and he'd said he'd have caught it. Maybe the placement of the runners, maybe they don't know where they're going with that, I don't know. It's an out. You want to get every out you possibly can. We felt like it was catchable."
Piscotty confirmed as much, saying, "It's a tough play going into the wall, but I felt like I was there in enough time. Definitely changes how that inning goes, but nothing we can do about it now.
"I never understand when they're going to overturn stuff. I had a feeling they wouldn't."
A catch by Piscotty would have been the second out and kept the A's on top, even if had tagged from third and scored. Instead, the inning only worsened.

Right-hander gave the A's four innings of one-run ball -- Trout's fourth-inning homer the lone blemish -- following a seven-pitch scoreless first from opener . But Mengden exited after throwing 68 pitches as he was replaced by to open the sixth.
Playing the role of spoiler, the Angels tacked on two more runs in the eighth against . The A's cut the deficit to 9-7 with three runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by and a two-run single by pinch-hitter . However, they went down in order against Halos right-hander  in the ninth.
"We battled," Piscotty said. "We got down by a significant margin and battled back. I think that's who this team is. Great teams don't just give up, so we have to feel good about that. Obviously, we don't feel good about a loss, but we made a run."

SOUND SMART
, who drew a career high-tying three walks, has a career-high 74 free passes this season.
HE SAID IT
"Obviously, we don't want folks to interfere, but 95 percent of people are going to do that. I don't fault the fan or anything. I know that person was getting booed pretty heavily, but everyone else in the stadium probably would do the same thing. Hopefully the security folks around the line can alert people before the game and hope they remember." -- Piscotty, on the play the A's challenged for fan interference
UP NEXT
Left-hander  (3-5, 4.35 ERA) will toe the rubber for Wednesday's 7:05 p.m. PT game against right-hander (3-4, 3.75) and the Angels at the Coliseum. Anderson faced the Halos on Aug. 10, taking a no-decision after allowing two runs on four hits with four strikeouts in five innings at Angel Stadium.