The Angels allowed the A’s to gain a game on their first place standing by dropping to them on Monday, 6-1.
The Angels met with hitting coach Mickey Hatcher before the game, but that apparently did no good as the offense put up just one run on four hits off Greg Smith’s complete game victory for the A’s. They’ve now scored just two runs in the past four games and are batting .176 in their past five. The 3-4-5 hitters went hitless in the game and the only run came off Mike Napoli’s solo shot in the fifth. Juan Rivera also took the birthday boy Garret Anderson’s spot in left for the game. Anderson has now been benched for two straight games after batting just .188 for the month of June, but will back in the lineup on Tuesday to hopefully kick off July with a better swing.
Jon Garland failed to earn his 100th big league victory after giving up four runs (two earned) on eight hits in six innings. He gave the A’s a two-run lead in the second and left in the seventh after Juan Rivera dropped a fly ball. The error allowed Garland to be tagged for two unearned runs and put the A’s up 4-1. Darren Oliver then gave up a run in the eighth and Howie Kendrick’s throwing error past first in the ninth put the A’s at six runs.
The Angels suffered more than one loss on Monday: Kelvim Escobar may be out for the remainder of the season. Escobar made a rehab start for Class A on Monday, striking out four of the ten batters he faced in three innings, but started to feel pain again in his shoulder. He is scheduled to meet with his doctor tonight and a decision on when, or even whether, he returns will be determined.
The second game of the set is a matchup between Ervin Santana and Rich Harden, who is 5-0. Santana is in search of his tenth win while the Angel offense looks to heat things up after batting under .200 with four losses in their past five games.
