Brent Rooker homered, singled and drove in two runs to lead the Athletics to a 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night in West Sacramento, Calif.
Colby Thomas also hit a home run and drove in two runs and Darell Hernaiz went 2-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs for the Athletics, who won their second straight game.
Rookie Luis Morales (1-0), making his second major league start, picked up his first big league victory, allowing one run on five hits in five innings. The 22-year-old right-hander walked two and struck out five. Sean Newcomb gave up an unearned run on two hits over the final 1 2/3 innings en route to pick up his first save since April 2021.
Nolan Schanuel had three hits and a walk, Zach Neto had two hits and an RBI and Mike Trout singled and walked for Los Angeles, which lost its second straight game.
Tyler Anderson (2-8) suffered the loss, extending his team record with his 20th consecutive start without a victory. Anderson, whose last win came on April 18 against San Francisco, allowed four runs on three hits in four innings. He walked five and struck out one.
The Athletics, who snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Angels with a 10-3 victory in Friday night’s series opener, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run home run by Thomas. The 413-foot drive to left was the second in two games for Thomas and drove in Shea Langeliers, who had walked.
Los Angeles cut the lead to 2-1 in the second inning when Luis Rengifo led off with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Neto.
The A’s extended their lead to 4-1 in the third when Anderson walked Rooker, Nick Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom to load the bases. Harnaiz then singled to center to drive in Rooker and Kurtz.
Rooker made it 5-1 in the fifth when he led off against reliever Ryan Zeferjahn with a 421-foot drive to left-center field for his 25th homer of the season. Rooker became the first A’s player to hit at least 25 homers in three consecutive seasons since Khris Davis (2016-18).
The Athletics added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning on RBI singles by Brett Harris and Rooker.
–Field Level Media
