ANAHEIM — The Angels have become so maddening to opponents that starting pitchers are getting ejected well after they have exited games.
The Angels won one game Monday night when a player on the other team managed to gain national attention with a home-run robbing catch. They won another Tuesday even as they failed to score a run entering the eighth inning.
On Wednesday afternoon, they completed a three-game sweep of the Athletics when they bunched all of their runs in a single inning while taking a 6-5 victory.
The best homestand of the season ended with the Angels winning five of the six games. And the domination of the A’s continued with the Angels winning all seven games against their rivals so far this season.
“It’s just about everybody doing their job and not trying to be more than what they are,” said center fielder Jo Adell, who hit a home run in a decisive six-run sixth inning and made a catch up against the wall. “Find a way to get it done and we’ve done that. We’ve been consistent at doing it.”
It became so unbearable for A’s starter JP Sears that he was ejected in the Angels’ productive sixth inning three batters after he left a game he had dominated to that point. Sears voiced his displeasure about a 3-and-2 pitch to Mike Trout, who walked on a pitch that appeared to be a strike. He wasn’t even on the mound at the time of the walk.
Chalk it up to just another break for the Angels, who have created plenty on their own, whether it was during their eight-game winning streak last month that came amid the team’s first visit to Sacramento, or the just-completed stop at home that included plenty of success against the A’s and Seattle Mariners.
The Angels have teed off against An A’s bullpen that has an MLB-worst 6.04 ERA.
“(Sears) was masterful out there until we started putting some at-bats together,” manager Ron Washington said.
Up next is a seven-game trip to face the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, teams the Angels are 1-5 against this season.
Angels right-hander Kyle Hendricks (4-6) showed his veteran savvy by giving up three runs (two earned) over six innings. The outing took a minute to fully appreciate, though, with the A’s holding a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.
The modest veteran was quick to give praise to catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
“Trav was really good today, just really kept me locked in,” Hendricks said. “We established the fastball early, changeup working off of it, threw some good curveballs. But really good at going in and out, back and forth with the fastball and changeup, reading what they were trying to do to me.”
But just like Tuesday, when the Angels scored a pair of late runs to win, they just needed to find the right time to let loose. The sixth-inning outburst started with a leadoff single from Kevin Newman and then came in a flood from there.
Zach Neto singled and Trout walked against Grant Holmes to load the bases with one out on a pitch that appeared to be well within the sike zone. That allowed the Angels to pull within a run at 3-1 when Taylor Ward was hit by a pitch.
Jorge Soler followed with a game-tying two run single on a roller up the middle that not only eluded shortstop Max Schuemann, it also dribbled past second baseman Luis Urias.
As Holman was being replaced by Osvaldo Bido, Sears’ review of the inning from there earned him the ejection.
A sacrifice fly from d’Arnaud made it a 4-3 lead and Adell crushed a home run well over the left-field wall for a 6-3 advantage. The home run was Adell’s 13th of the season and his seventh in the past 11 games.
“We finally found a way to pass that baton like what we’ve been talking about and preaching of finding a way to get on base, put a ball in play and force the defense to make plays,” Adell said. “We kind of got a little rhythm going, tied the game up and scratched out some more (runs) from there.”
The A’s pulled within 6-5 on a two-run home run from Brent Rooker in the seventh inning to cap his four-hit, two-homer day. His chance at a fifth hit ended when he flew out to deep center in the ninth.
“It’s hard in this game to have a perfect day so I’m glad he didn’t,” Washington said of Rooker nearly coming to his team’s rescue all by himself. “He went 4 for 4 until that last one when Detmers got him.”
But the Angels’ bullpen continued to do what is needed as Connor Brogdon wiggled his way out of a bumpy ride in the eighth thanks to a sliding catch in right field by Soler.
With closer Kenley Jansen down for the day, former starter Reid Detmers continued to look like a bullpen veteran with a 10-pitch, two-strikeout perfect ninth inning for his second save this season.
“It doesn’t matter if you win a series or you win a game, the mentality is the same,” Washington said about the fortitude it takes to finish off a sweep. “We’re trying to get there. We’re trying to learn how to do that. Until you see what the day offers, just come and play.”