Carlos Cortes hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Athletics overcame a six-run deficit to register a 9-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
In addition to the homer off Sam Bachman, Cortes also had a pinch-hit RBI triple in the seventh as the Athletics ended a six-game losing streak. Zack Gelof hit a two-run homer later in the eighth for the A’s.
Shea Langeliers and Lawrence Butler each had three hits and an RBI for the Athletics (62-95).
Denzer Guzman homered and had four RBIs for the Angels (60-97), who lost for the fourth time in six games. Vaughn Grissom had three hits and two RBIs and Mike Trout had three hits and two runs for Los Angeles, which has never lost 100 games in a season.
Alika Williams led off the eighth against Bachman (1-3) with a grounder up the middle that hit second base and bounced into center field for a single. Cortes then came up and unloaded on the first pitch, sending a fastball over the wall in right to give the A’s the lead for the first time.
Butler hit a ground-rule double off Bachman with two outs and Gelof hit a two-run blast off Blake Weiman to make it a three-run lead.
Luis Medina (6-3) worked a scoreless eighth for the A’s and Hogan Harris allowed consecutive two-out infield singles to Jose Siri, Wade Meckler and Christian Moore for one Angels run.
Harris then struck out Oswald Peraza looking to end it for his 16th save.
Yusei Kikuchi allowed two runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings for the Angels. He struck out two and walked one.
Brady Basso of the Athletics allowed five runs and six hits over two-plus innings as the starter. He struck out two and walked two.
The Angels plated a run in the first on Guzman’s infield out before tacking on four runs in the third.
Zach Neto and Trout led off with singles before Grissom delivered an RBI single to left. Guzman came up next and swatted a 2-2 fastball over the fence in left-center off Basso to make it 5-0.
Neto drew a one-out walk in the sixth and stole second and third before scoring on Grissom’s two-out single to left.
The Athletics chipped away in the sixth when Langeliers hit a one-out double and scored on Butler’s triple off the center field fence. The A’s pushed across another run when Jeff McNeil hit a grounder to first and shortstop Neto was unable to snag a high throw from first baseman Grissom as Butler scored.
The A’s narrowed the gap further in the seventh as Williams led off with a single and scored on Cortes’ triple to right. After Henry Bolte walked, Langeliers stroked an RBI single to left off Jose Fermin to pull the Athletics within 6-4.
Butler laid down a sacrifice bunt against Tayler Saucedo, who then hit Gelof and issued a bases-loaded walk to McNeil as the A’s moved within one.
–Field Level Media
