A’s overpower and overtake Angels with 10-4 victory

OAKLAND — The Angels spent Tuesday night watching plans go awry.

Early pitches that seemed to be balls were called strikes. A batted ball heading to a glove went elsewhere. They anticipated their pitching upgrade would defeat their old castoff.

Instead, the outcome was a 10-4 loss to division-rival Oakland that dropped the Angels half a game behind the Athletics for the American League’s final wild-card spot.

The Angels, 4-5 on a 10-game trip, will close the series Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, 39-year-old former Angel Bartolo Colon (9-8) kept his old team scoreless until the seventh inning, when a grand lead had already been secured against starter C.J. Wilson (9-8).

Wilson hasn’t won in eight starts since June 26.

Although Colon was the immediate beneficiary of some favorable calls on first-inning strikeouts of Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, Wilson was quickly victimized by a first-inning home run by Jonny Gomes on an 0-and-2 pitch.

It got far worse in the Athletics’ four-run third inning, when Wilson surrendered two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out before Derek Norris grounded a ball to third baseman Alberto Callaspo that should have kept the score 1-0.

The ball instead went under Callaspo’s glove, rolling to left field as two runners scored. Adam Rosales followed with a sacrifice fly and No. 9 batter Jemile Weeks hit a run-scoring triple to right-center field.

“It’s not all on C.J. We cracked the door open for them,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of the error.

Wilson walked five and needed 114 pitches to get through five innings, days after he met with pitching coach Mike Butcher and Scioscia in an effort to make his outings more economical.

Gomes’ fifth-inning single, the ninth hit against Wilson, gave Oakland a 6-0 lead.

“It took C.J. a lot of work,” Scioscia said. “He wasn’t missing by much, but putting hitters away became an issue. … C.J. will be there.”

Colon extended his scoreless streak to more than 22 innings by withstanding two first-inning singles and responding by retiring 17 of the next 18 batters.

The only runner who reached during the stretch, Erick Aybar, got on as the older, still beefy Colon failed to bend over in time to gather a grounder that bounced off him.

After Wilson’s exit, the Angels’ struggling bullpen took over and didn’t fare well. David Carpenter gave up consecutive home runs to Norris and Rosales in the sixth inning.

In the seventh, Jerome Williams surrendered Josh Reddick’s 25th home run this season.

Angels relievers have given up 16 home runs in 25 games since the All-Star break. Their work on the current trip has been more unsightly, with 27 runs given up in 241/3 innings for a 9.99 earned-run average.

At least Trout had some enjoyment. He became the fifth player to hit a home run on his 21st birthday, joining Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Heyward.

His 20th home run made him the youngest player to have 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases in one season.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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